Oltmer

The anomosity towards Texas and Beebe is mearly fan/media driven and not between the bosses. UNL is doing what is best for the school academicly/athleticly and with the rest of the teams remaining in the Big 12-10ish I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

LOL wow he is really sticking it to Beebe and Texas. Is it more in the heat of all this Expansion talk the Big 12 tore itself appart in anticipation of the expansions.

HMMM he said they are applying to the Big 10 not accepting an invitation?!? anyone else catch that.

LOL, maybe the Mountain West is trying to say hey, with these super 16 team conferences maybe we can still be the best non AQ of them. Kidding a side, the board is rocking today.

So ran accross this today and found it very intersting, HI.com was running the audio for the interview with Joe Schad if you have a subscription. I thought the bolded was very "smoking gun".

Thouhgt this was interesting, if (big if) Bradford starts for St. Louis and Gerlad McCoy starts for Tampa Bay next year. Now I bring this up because if all three of these draft picks start next year we will get to see each of top three draft picks perform against each other the year following the draft. Detroit vs St. Louis Sun, Oct 10 and Detroit vs Tampa Bay Sun, Dec 19. I for one am actually excited to watch these games next year just to see how each team builds around there number 1's and to see them face each off against each other.

I voted Lee, following the Arizona game it is his position to lose and honestly he hasn't done anything to lose it yet. Nor have I seen anything from the other QB's to warrent him not starting. From the two practices I watached Lee was still the man, he has that it factor to him. During drills he impressed me not only because of his disire to throw when he couldn't but because he competed with each and everyone one of the QB's. Perfect example, one drill the QB's had to dodge giant crunch balls (aka Ab workout balls) being thrown from different directions. While that was going on the QB's had to dodge, turn and follow passing targets. Now normally you wouldn't think much of this drill but watching all the QB's take their turns and watching them interact. It was clear that Lee was still the leader of the QB's. During that drill not only did his feet work look great but he was able to dodge every ball thrown at him and quickly adjust to the passing target. The other QB's got hit atleast twice everytime they ran it and didn't adjust as quick as he was able to. During other drillS the same thing would go on, Lee would display great feet work and the desire to fire the ball when he was supposed to pass. The other QB's just didn't seem as comforatable with the drills yet. Now I know all of this is subject to change once he is allowed to throw and fall ball begins but like I said I have not seen anything to say that he has lost his starting postion yet. The only major thing I could see is that Martinez jumps Green for the number two spot. All I can say is that we have great depth at QB and someone will probably transfer if there isn't any separation after this year. I can see Martinez starting for a VT, GT type offensive team I really could.

He did "lead" them on the first touchdown drive of the scrimage, it was the second or third run the O had, and it was against the 2nd team D. Green had one good pass that was for more than 5 yards that drive and most of the yards came from the run game. Now I'm not saying the kid didn't perform decent at all but he seamed to either struggle with D or had problems running the O which ever might have been the case. While I sat there for the full scrimage I watched how well Green managed the O and how the rest of the QB's managed the O. Martinez clearly out performed everyone "that day". Green had good moments but it would come in glimpses. They rotated the D's with the O's so first stringers faced all three strings of defense and so forth for the other offensive strings. On the opening drive of the scrimage it was 1's vs 1's then 2's vs 1's then 3's vs 1's then 1's vs 2's and so forth etc.. So you cant just look at one drive in the scrimage and say oh man he looked good cause it just might have been against the 3rd stingers. As far as the lack of pass rush, that was mostly due to the designed read option plays they were running. The O line is widening there gaps, aka instead of 1 1/2 paces between the lineman its now 2 paces. So that might have been a factor in being able to split the D line and make more steps for them to get to the QB. I did see for a fact that there were about 8 sacks in that scrimage. But 4 of them was on green shirt Spano. The D honestly didn't realize how the O was going to come at them so it was alot of read and react going on. I know a few coverage busts happened but either the ball was over thrown or was uncatchable at times. Some of the passes also let the WR's out to dry and I'm sure that might have pissed them off a little.

Regarding the bold: I think people are down on Lee because he is, at best, an average Division I quarterback. I'll be the first to admit that the offensive line and wide receivers did Lee few favors. That said, his decision making is below average and he tends to lock onto receivers. That has nothing to do with his arm injury. Also, for all the hype in the off season about Lee's speed he runs robotically with no wiggle or vision. Lee will never make anyone miss a tackle. Before I get accused of being too harsh, Lee does have some strengths. Lee throws a decent long ball. Lee is adequate at hitting timing slant routes. Finally, Lee might be the best quarterback on the roster. I'm hoping he improves his game significantly from last year before we hit the conference games. (Also, don't focus too much on Lee's performance in the Holiday Bowl. Arizona was absolutely shell shocked from the first series on. Honestly, Nebraska probably didn't even have to throw a pass to win that game.) i look at it as Lee was healthy for the first 3 games of the season and then he had rest before the holiday bowl. those were his best games.....BY FAR. you can say that the first 3 games were also the worst teams we played and thats true but it doesnt take away from how good he looked. and then arizona like it or not was a GOOD team, they had just beaten USC as well. arizona was one of the 4 best teams we played all season and they were only one game away from being pac10 champs and we absolutely pushed them around. might i also add that was the healthiest that our Oline had been since the first 3 games last season also and they were absolutely dominating a good arizona Dline. those 2 factors right there show me that Lee has the potential to be a very very good d1 starting qb. You're right that Lee looked impressive against Sun Belt defenses . . . but as you noted they were Sun Belt defenses. I stand by what I said about Arizona. I agree that they were a good team over the entire year. BUT they were 2nd best in a below average Pac 10. Plus, we did NOT get Arizona's best shot. Nebraska was by far the better team . . . but Arizona hardly even showed up. It was the strangest and most complete collapse I've ever seen in person. O'Hanlon picked that first pass off . . . and the whole Arizona sideline stared at the ground for the rest of the game. Even the Arizona fans shut up. Just odd. Also, Lee's numbers from that game were far from great. He was 13 for 23 (56%) and should have had at least 3 passes intercepted. The Arizona secondary must have decided to contribute to the collapse because they straight up dropped those balls. Edit: Continuing on my Holiday Bowl train of thought . . . part of the reason for the offensive success is that the Arizona defense prepared exclusively for the pound it up the middle/ten passes a game offense that Nebraska showed in the Big 12 championship game. Think about that. Their defense prepared for a full month to stop a pure rushing attack . . . and we threw a wide open spread offense with zone reads and a wildcat formation at them. How much of the offensive success was because of Arizona being utterly unprepared for that offense? Think about it like Nebraska spent a month preparing to face Kansas State and Missouri showed up on game day. You can argue otherwise, but I attribute very little of our offensive success against Arizona to Zac Lee's ability as a quarterback. Lee also rushed for 65 yards in that game. you just cant tell me that a team that looked as good as arizona had all season just decided to up and quit for the last game of the season either. they played as well as they could and we just plain shut them down and ran right through them. besides all of that, Lees demeanor was a big part of why he looked so much better in that game. he led the offense with authority and people were following him because they knew that he was giving it his all. Are you suggesting that Arizona played to their full potential? If so . . . I don't know what to tell you. Go watch the game again, I guess. You didn't address the problem of Arizona's defense practicing for a full month to shut down an entirely different offense than the one we fielded. Think that might be difficult to adjust to? Let me put it this way: Lee is not as good as he looked against the Sun Belt teams and Arizona. Similarly, Lee is not as bad as he looked against ISU, Texas, and Oklahoma. He's somewhere in the middle. Average. any good coach knows that teams are going to add to their playbook and be rested in between the last game of the season and the bowl game. stoops knew that and so did most fans. we already knew that we had practiced some wildcat so you can bet your ass that stoops knew that we had too. yes i do think that arizona played to their full potential, it may not have looked that way to the untrained eye but the fact is that we were just manhandling their "full ability". they tried to stop us and they just plain couldnt. simple as that. you are correct though, his skill lies somewhere in between those groups of games however i tend to think that his skill lies closer to the higher tier grouping. Lee has the "it" factor and you can see it in his face, the players love the guy! if you cant see that then go back and watch the MU game and see his face light up after he takes that big hit! I think you hit the nail right on the head there. Lee isn't the best QB out there but he has the it factor. Even though he couldn't play everytime I saw him out there everyone respected and accepted that he is the leader of the offense. Even during drill with the other QB's he had that swagger that put everything together. I think we will succeed this year with Lee, not a MNC but be successful and competative. If he goes down I can see the O taking a step backwards with any of the other QB's. But the authletism gap between Lee, Green, Martinez is not that big and it all comes down to leadership.

Who was lined up with the #1s on offensive line? Who first to rotate in/out? Great info, btw. Many thanks for posting. Sorry I cant answer this better but I know for a fact that Yoshi, Caputo, K. Williams, DJ & Marcel Jones all were the primary OL for the 1's but Qvale, Smith and Sirles all rotated in with the 1's. The one that was most impressive was Sirles he just looked the part and benifited nicely from the redshirt. It's realy a shame though that Smith is having troubles transitioning into a starting spot. During the practice he was just beat up and picked on by the D, I suppose it was a bad day cause he looked ok against the D during the scrimage.

The scrimage was just to simulate a game environment for the base offense and defense. I'm sure more will develop as the spring/fall ball continues. The big thing they wanted to evaluate from the O-line is blocking and technique in the scrimage. I think they succeeded in that they recieved an honest evaluation on each indivdual lineman with the base offense, all the strings got equal playing time and that looked promising to devolping the line accross the board. And as far a pitch option to both Helu and Burkhead....trust me they pulled that out a couple of times. I'll admint that I was happy to see the fullback get some love, had 1 of 3 touchdowns receptions of the scrimage.

If Green really has not improved over last season, as seemingly is the case --- you saw him --- then unless the Fall is a time of MASSIVE, MASSIVE, HUGE improvement, it is time to consider a position switch for Cody. If he is still reckless and clueless then (in fall) he still is characterized by bad decisions then I'd say TE or, well.... not sure where to put him... but QB, no. I never did understand the Green hype. He really was not that big a recruit. Others had him as an athlete and not a QB and very few looked at him other than us. How is it that some are inclined to think that Green was a big national recruit. he was solid, but not big. he may pan out... but unless things really change, it is unlikely that he'll be a Qb of note for NU. Probably not even a QB at all. Cody is a QB always has and always will be, I don't see the staff moving him at all. If anything I can see Martinez being switched if he doesn't want to sit the bench for the next 2 years. Personally I would love to see Green redshirt and continue to develop. As Bowden put it in one of his speeches, the kid just doesn't have the it factor yet. I do see a problem with having 3 capable starting QB's someone will probably transfer especially with the log jam at Soph and Fresh after next year. Now I'm not meaning to bash on Cody I think he has the ability to succeed he just has to keep on it and figure out whats holding him back.

Here is another nugget to chew on. Of the 44 sacks last year 41 were the direct result of collapsing the pocket, direct quote from Carl. The line will be good again this year, will the sack numbers remain the same we will see. All the big XII teams have seen this defense for 2 years now it'll be interesting to see how they counter act that in practices and on game day.

Too bad we don't play in the 12-South aren't Texas or TTech. Wouldn't have to worry about holding-penalties then. Fixed it for ya. Thanks for the insight, coach. The o-line certainly needs the most improvement from last season. I've been thinking we're still a year or two away from a really good o-line. Yeah the young kids really show promise and they will be working with the newer techniques through out their career there. The older personnel are harder to break of the way they operate so the finished product wont be seen for another 2 years. I'll say this I wasn't a big fan of Cotton earlier but I got to experience what he and Garrison are teaching these kids and he's doing a great job at trying to develop the basics with these kids.

Yoshi looked good even thought he was wearing that ballon of a cast on his hand. He is picking up quickly and I fully expect him to be a starter this fall. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news but Spano is not himself. We all know he came off 2 ACL surgeries and those are not the easiest things to recover from but he just wasn't even close to the level that everyone was. Please take in mind that he did wear a green jersey so no one was allowed to hit him. He was hesative on throws, his passes were slow and floated alot. He couldn't make decisions quick enough to respond to the pass rush. I.E. he was sacked repeatedly in the scrimage when everyone else was only sacked once or twice. Now I'm not meaning to bash on the guy but he just isn't up to the level of play as everyone else and that includes Latravis Washington. On a side note, Ron Kellog did look good and on the same level as Washington as far as competion based judgement. If I had to make a depth chart right now it would be 1. Lee, 2. Martinez, 3. Green, 4. Washingon, 5. Kellog, 6. Spano. Again Spano might get to how he was last year when we watched him in the spring game but its highly unlikely he will be able to rebound quick enought this year to make an impact. Again thats just my personal opinion and I really hope I'm proven wrong.