husker07

Pete Carroll and his assistants yell, but they rarely if ever curse or demean their players. In my opinion, to each their own I guess. Obviously success has been had both ways. I personally just don't see any reason to tear your players down. It just seems like if you're attacking your player's personally, you're either not a great motivator or not a great teacher. Moments where mistakes are made are great opportunities for growth, why tear down someone who's usually trying their best.

Wisconsin, Alabama, and Stanford are 3 schools that I can think of off the top of my head that run pro style offenses. There is some variation depending on personnel, but for the most part their identity is smashmouth running football.

I love this OP. Sums up my feelings exactly on the new era of offense. It terribly stunts the growth of the most important player on the team, the qb. Yes, it can make it easier for guys to succeed, but long term you'd be better off letting a guy learn and develop the mental side of the game.

Earl Thomas, the best safety in the world and very speedy, misses a couple tackles every game. It happens. Gerry is only a sophomore and you could argue he was consistently the best defensive player for NU last year. As he gets more comfortable back there and gets more experience, he'll be dangerous. Potential All-American/1st Rd pick.

Words, words, words. We'll see what happens when the season starts.

Anyone know anything about Wyatt Mazour? I know he visited NU, as well as Iowa State and Wyoming, but does anyone have any updates. Surely he's been at least offered a walk-on spot. I think he should honestly be considered for a scholly.

 

While we're throwing out crazy names that there's no chance they come to Nebraska:

 

Gus Bradley - Head Coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars

 

 

The dude is the Tim Miles of football coaches (they are actually friends from their time at North Dakota St.), and would make a FANTASTIC college football head coach. Smart, energetic, a great football mind, and a guy that would be able to attract recruits to Nebraska.

 

Obviously not gonna leave a NFL gig for Nebraska (even if it is the Jags) and probably could get another NFL job fairly quickly if the Jags are stupid and fire him, but if I could pick any coach in America to coach Nebraska, he'd be top 3.

I would love Coach Bradley. He is very charismatic and is a great defensive mind. One of my old coaches is on his staff and he is a stud too. They have the personality to be great recruiters and bring the Tampa 2 from NDSU which has been a hotbed for coaches at the next level.

 

No to Gus. Big Seahawks fan, and while liked as a man and respected Gus was/is not considered a very good coach in Hawk circles. More a product of his massive talent and Pete Carroll. If we were to go with someone from the PC tree, I'd go with the Hawks current DC Dan Quinn. He's not too high up on my list, but he runs a very simple defense that emphasizes playing loose vs out-scheming people. But, you need some very talented, very dedicated, and very smart players to make it work. So there's that.

Watch the play pass if they go for it.

Give this Thin White Duke something to be merry about.

Tommy Armstrong's problems are not things that can be solved on the sidelines during the game. His footwork and pocket presence, and by extension accuracy and timing, are about as bad as you will see in D1. Those things are improved upon in the offseason. That's on him first and our staff second.

Pretty much just stop the run and don't given them a short field off turnovers. It's really that simple. Their qb play is beyond awful.

As much as I love Abdullah, I do think Gordon and Gurley will be better pros. Those two are just special, every so often type of guys imo. But, I have been nothing but consistently wrong in my prognostications about AA so what do I know.

Joe Ganz. He was better than Taylor and probably the best quarterback we've had since Crouch. Ya he threw some interceptions, but he was basically winning/keeping us in games based on his ability to make throws. Guy was a beast and we'd be undefeated this year if we had a qb of his caliber.

Did we not know coming in that this offense runs off Abdullah's abilities? Why are people surprised we struggled once he went out? Armstrong is seriously flawed at this point. He has to show improvement. All this team needs is a point guard type at qb to distribute it to the playmakers and not put us in bad spots with TOs.

The one announcer really likes the SEC. This is a Big 10 game. Just stop.

Their defense isn't as good as years past, Stave still sucks, and Jared Abbrederis is gone. I like our chances.

For lasting success, he should. He's raw as hell and is going to have a very steep learning curve in the NFL. He's made some technical improvements, but one more year would really help him. Financially, it's going to be tough to come back however.

Turning and looking for the ball as cb, especially in man to man, is a really tough skill to develop. You see guys in the NFL unable to do it all the time. Like you saw last night, great ball placement (with timing) and a greater play by a receiver can beat perfect coverage. It's kind of another thing though for safeties with help over the top, playing the ball coming forward. As great as I think Gerry has played thus far, one area he desperately needs to improve is his ball skills. He has the speed to cover his half of the field and eliminate anything over the top in 2 high. Corey Cooper is a different story, he's just not athletic enough. There are probably defensive ends with more speed and explosion than him. Still a solid player though.

Roach's tackles, for the most part anyway, weren't trail/pilejump tackles easier (ala Scott Shanle style). He was meeting people at or near the LOS all night. Thought he should've been starting way back. Losing him hurt us last year.

Thought it couldn't be any worse than the Callahan-era O-lines, but it is. Possibly the worst I've seen.

 

Sterup and Lewis are possibly the worst set of tackles I've ever seen play for us.

Sterup was getting beat by a guy who's gonna be a 1st round pick. Calhoun is going to be doing that to professionals in due time. He's fine. Bullough is a good player as well. Now Mark Pelini, that guy is not a B10 center.

I honestly didn't think they were that bad. Not particularly good, but not terrible. MSU made a concerted effort to stop Abdullah, meaning 8+ guys going downhill against 5. Throw in the fact that they have one of the nation's most talented and well-coached defenses and what do you expect? All we really had to do was establish some type of passing game and they would've eased off. Is the o-line 90's Nebraska good? No, but they're probably the best unit we've fielded in about 10 years. The offense's ineptitude rests pretty much on Tommy Armstrong. He MUST develop some type of pocket presence, footwork, and by an extension accuracy if we hope to jump into the upper echelon teams. Tim Beck can gimmick and scheme as much as he wants to make things easier for him, but right now he doesn't have the ability.

Wow. Congrats to Spencer Long.

Gerry looks much more comfortable at safety. Played really well yesterday, but made the mistake of trying to tackle Imani Cross. He got plastered lol.

Pretty much exactly the same except for: a)Kaepernick is 2" taller and 20 lbs heavier, b)Kaep has one of the strongest throwing arms in the world, c) Kaep is fast enough to make NFL defenders look slow, and d) Ryker is not a delta bravo. In all seriousness, they're both kind of gangly and move/throw kind of similarly.