HeyBurke

Yeah, that's going to the out-of-context thread in the woodshed, sorry HeyBurke. I'm hoping that all this kool-aid leads to something tangible in the fall. Really excited with some of the things I'm hearing this spring from our defense. I don't even blame you. I knew as soon as I posted that that it came off really badly!

Crock and Suh were both DTs. And I said DE is our weak position. But our best player happens to be a DE (Gregory) and he doesn't have anything close to a Suh like impact; thus, we need better depth than we did with Suh, because Suh was just that good. You're comparing one's first year and sophomore year to the other's senior year. Suh had one really good game as a junior against Kansas with 12 tackles, 3 TFL and 2.5 sacks. If you look at Randy Gregory's numbers throughout the season they are pretty darn comparable. Whose is whose? Player 1 76 tackles - 16 TFL - 7.5 Sacks Player 2 65 tackles - 16 TFL - 9.5 Sacks Correct me if I'm wrong, but it is much harder to be a dominant DT (stat wise) than it is to be a dominant DE, stat wise, is it not? Gregory's job is to get after the QB - Suh's job was to stuff the run, take up blockers, then make a play (albeit that he just got after the QB every time - but that is an anomaly for a DT, is it not?) Aside from that (which I could very easily be wrong, but I think DT is probably one of the tougher places to play as in Bo's scheme, DT's don't usually rack up tackles or sacks. They eat up blocks so linebackers can.) I'd say they are pretty even stat wise. In addition, I was comparing those years because the OP was comparing THAT year to THIS year. I can't magically make Suh worse than was in 09 and magically make Gregory a senior in this coming year playing at his best. He wanted to compare this years defense to the 2009 defense. That's what I did. In most defenses, DTs aren't expected rack up the stats. They exist to wreak havoc on the run game and maintain gap integrity so the LBs can make most of the tackles. Bo's defense is different in that he expects his DTs to make plays that you would normally expect out of DE, such as rushing the passer and racking up tackles. That's one of the reasons Suh and Crick were able to put up such monster numbers. Yes, they obviously were better than most anyone on the field trying to defend them, but they were also given the responsibility and freedom to make plays that DTs aren't usually expected to make.

I have a feeling that these refs are gonna get some sort of punishment. Whether that's as simple as a slap on the wrist, or as bad as not allowing to call games for a while, I'm sure something will happen. In my opinion, they should all be demoted for this abortion they called a game. This was the worst officiating I have seen in any level of any sport.

NFL: Bears and Patriots NBA: Bulls If I had to cheer for a hockey team, I guess it would be the Blackhawks, just to keep the Chicago theme consistent.

No, but I wish the atmosphere at the Vault would translate over to Memorial next season.

Having Maliek and VV clogging up the inside gets me really excited. They are both big, but have very good athleticism and can make moves that a lot of DTs can't. If either one of them reaches their potential, they could be a scary tandem.

Maybe they'll play a different song for each game.

There are some conference games where it could come into play, too.

CJax taking over the difficult-to-master nickel/peso back could be huge for this defense. Remember how much the D struggled after Hagg left? Not just Eric Hagg, but DeJon Gomes, too. It would be awesome if CJax and Byerson Cockrell could become the new Hagg and Gomes. I guess it'd be nice if CJax and Cockrell were playing at that high of level....but I don't think we will be the defensive personal in the BIG10 as when we had to have Hagg, Gomes, two safeties and two corners in the BIG12. You're probably right, since it seems like we'll have a really good linebacker corps. A man can dream, though.

CJax taking over the difficult-to-master nickel/peso back could be huge for this defense. Remember how much the D struggled after Hagg left? Not just Eric Hagg, but DeJon Gomes, too. It would be awesome if CJax and Byerson Cockrell could become the new Hagg and Gomes.

This gets me excited. CJax has the potential to be better than Ciante was at that position.

Bo's defense is really freaking complicated and we had roughly a bajillion new players on our D. There's your answer.

It's definitely possible. Especially if that line can stay as healthy as the 2009 version did.

Gonna be hard to turn the lights down considering most of our games start during the daytime.

And probably based off of the leading trends and popularity of rap music in modern pop culture gawd you guys suck I love rap, man. I'm just saying that the guy who does the music at the Vault loves playing rap, so it's probably gonna be a rap song.

I would imagine it's probably going to be a rap song, based off the music selection at the Vault.

Taylor Martinez

That's true. I think Taylor's fumble stats are slightly inflated for the simple reason that he ran the ball a lot. It's bound to happen that a running QB is gonna have more fumbles than a pocket QB. With that said, Taylor had horrible ball security and had a lot of head scratching fumbles in his career.

How many were lost? How many were from getting blindsided in the pocket because the O-Line couldn't protect the pocket? Did he drop the ball? Sure, but so does TA (and far too often its during the snap). I still don't get the Martinez haters. The dude set over 30 school records, including: total offense, passing yards, touchdown passes and rushing yards by a QB. Dude played through injuries, dealt with scorn from fans, led the team to 2 conference championship games (games the defense slept through), and essentially put up video game numbers for 3 years. What did he do to earn your unabashed hatred? It is a fact, Martinez is one of the great Nebraska QBs and it is a shame that the team couldn't help him win a championship. I'm fairly positive that those fumble numbers are not correct going into his junior year,but i dont care enough to check. Its funny that even with Taylor (allegedly according to the king) throwing a worse ball, he still had a much better passing percentage. It's okay king, you're entitled to being wrong. Those numbers were correct. This site doesn't even include games stats unless it's two FBS schools and there are 45 in his 1st three years. I checked this a while back and he did have a couple more fumbles that don't show up here. http://www.teamranki...er-stat/fumbles #it'sokaytobefairlypositiveandbewrong I'm not sure what that link is supposed to show, but i didn't see anywhere that mentioned Taylor Martinez and fumbles. Btw, i think that those 47 fumbles were going into his senior year. You have to cycle through the years. Taylor had 16 fumbles in 2010, 13 in 2011, and 16 in 2012. Led the nation in fumbles three years in a row. That's 45 fumbles going into his senior year.