Huskerfan1985

how decorated was Vanden Bosch? not sure if top 5 caliber, but definately close imo.

This is kind of what makes Russillo fun. He's basically a self admitted Boston homer / average dude

I totally agree with this. The attitude that ESPN is against anyone or has any agenda is laughable. SVP and Russillo are usually very good at giving honest opinions and pretty sound in their opinions. I tend to agree with them a lot. But, it's like he's trying to blame the fans for nebraska being ranked when he doesn't think they deserve it. Basically, it sounds like he has more of a problem with the "Brand" of Nebraska and coaches/sports writers over valuing the program. I just think it's misplaced to put it on the fans and call them delusional. Very similar to Duke in regards to basketball. Whether they are truly good or not, they get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to seeding and ranking. I honestly have no problem with it either. You earn your place over the course of time not as a flash in the pan (see Texas Tech, Missouri, etc)

I suggest that everyone commenting actaully LISTEN to the podcast. I agree with parts and disagree with parts. First of all, for the record, SVP says NC STATE is his most dilusional fan base. Russillo says Nebraska, which is also kind of a respect thing too because he gives Nebraska credit for their storied history and tradition and basically picks Nebraska because their program matters. That being said, he basically attributes our dillusion to his belief that, as fans, we were going to run through the BIG 10 our first two years in the conference. I know i didn't feel that way. I had always thought the Big 10 was overrated and did not care for their style, but i guess I never thought we would coast through. The other thing that SVP has brought up before after the ucla game and he mentions again in the podcast is the tradition of the "blackshirts". I'm not really sure if it just makes him mad that we have always called the defense the blackshirts or if its the fan in him, which i agree with, that d plays lousy but is still supposed to be this feared unit with a special name. I guess my issue is, what are we supposed do as a fan base? say, "the d stinks this year so we wont celebrate the blackshirt tradition?" Don't get we wrong, I want the blackshirts to play lights out, but i think its more delusion to expect perfection. Blow outs happen. they suck. But i'd say as a fanbase we understand that and that makes us far from delusional. The blackshirts are and always be part of our program. I just don't see why this would matter to a journalist or sports reporter.

I take it you are new here. Just go back and read some posts from the past year and you will see we don't need Dirk to be the consumate pessimist to the program. There are several right here. Dirk's problem is that he just isn't very good at what he does. His article (and the turnover one) are basically "SEE, NUMBERS!!!! OMG!!!"The problem is, without context, you're just reciting stats. Applying his logic to Taylor Martinez' stats would mean he's the greatest QB to ever play NU. Which is simply not true. Well rather than just blindly bashing, please go ahead and state what problem you have with this article Blindly bashing is a Dirk specialty. He didn't really say anything other than "Tom did it this way" and cites stats from 20-30 years ago. The problem is, demographics have changed during that time, and high school football in Nebraska isn't producing the guys it used to. Sure, some of the success we had with Nebraska guys back then was due to our system, but the numbers show the state isn't producing as many BCS caliber guys. I've stated what he should have done, above, but I'll spell it out. If I were getting paid to write this article, I would have highlighted those changes. I also would have pointed out the shift in elite CFB talent over the past 20-30 years to the sunbelt. Those places have football year round, producing athletes that are ready to play earlier. The elite teams are getting their starts from there, and it's something we have struggled with. You have to be more selective, because we can't afford to waste schollies on guys that don't hit their stride until midway through the junior year, or as seniors. We don't have the luxury of 100 man rosters, huge coaching staffs, and huge classes of walk ons. The economy plays a role in forcing guys who would have formerly been walk ons, to take scholarships at other schools. We don't have a monopoly on TV time, and parents can watch their kids play on TV at just about any school. We had more in state talent back then compared to now. That pads the "500 mile" numbers, because you have homegrown recruits that are almost guaranteed to be Huskers. We also had the novelty to bury guys on the roster, put them through 2-3 years of S&C, and have them ready to roll as Sophomores and Juniors. We don't have that luxury anymore. This emphasizes to need to recruit CA, FL, and TX, and we're more dependent on it than teams like OSU and UM who have 10x the number of BCS recruits in their states. When we were churning along, we had a core group of NE guys, and a large amount from the surrounding states, finally, we sprinkled in guys from the sunbelt. The high schools in Nebraska ran similar offenses. We had a well established system that simply needed pieces to make it go. Today, we don't have that core group of NE guys, and aren't getting the better guys from surrounding states, partially because we aren't the big dog, partially because recruiting efforts weren't there, and partially because there aren't as many elite guys in that radius. What can the staff do to address the differences in recruiting between Dr Tom's days, and the current climate? For starters, the percentage of recruits inside the 500 mile radius is irrelevant. What's more important, is getting the good players to come to NU. Whether that's 2 guys or 10, NU needs to get the cream of the crop inside that radius. The only other "big dog" in that circle is OU. Since NU isn't the national powerhouse we were in the 90's, the coaches need to sell themselves and our program to the highschool coaches in this radius. That will help influence the kids. Also, we need to figure out WTF is wrong with football in Nebraska, and get the AD more involved with helping our highschool kids get caught up to their counterparts who play football all year long. So.... back to my statement, Dirk didn't really say much of anything other than "Tom did it this way, and we need to do it again." The problem is, things have changed, and we need to figure out what we need to do to adapt, instead of trying to re-create something from the past. +1 Excellent points. I could not agree more.

This is what I'd heard, too. I thought I alluded to it earlier, but I wasn't very clear. Very promising considering he was the #1 JUCO LB ... with a torn ACL. Get that man healthy! Yeah, for some reason I thought he injured it against UCLA or in practice the week before. I didn't realize it had been injured that long ago. I just don't understand how someone could even dream of playing D1 football missing an ACL....

Went to a recruiting fundraiser last night and Jamrog shared an interesting bit of info regarding Zaire. He claimed that his ACL was actually torn the year before at JUCO and that it went unnoticed until after the arky st game. Anyhow, he went on to say that the LB's as a whole should be really good, not that I would expect him to say anything else.

The players with the highest character will play. Dude speaks the truth lol

I do not feel it is fair or even reasonable to compare us to some other teams that may have some grand accomplishment within five years of hiring a new coach. Name one of those teams that was as low as Nebraska was at the beginning of that 5 year period. Was the last year of billy c bad? Yes. We didn't even make a bowl game. Big deal. This is an over reaction. You make it sound like we came off the death penalty. It was definately a low point but nothing that every other program hasn't been through.

not disagreeing simply pointing that if it's gonna happen its within 5 years and there are several examples. Bo was new but you could make the argument that an experienced coach could come to nu now and take us to a bcs within 5 years if it's the right hire. How have Bo's feet been to the fire since day one?

Patience is not overrated and building stability will never be outdated. The landscape of college football may be slightly different now (more parity) but you still have to go out there and smash the other team in the face and win on Saturdays. The biggest change for Nebraska has been that we lost the stable, reload every year system that TO built. We still have the same recruiting handicaps we've always had. Those were softened by a winning tradition (which is on the mend under Pelini) and by having an excellent player developement regime and work hard ethic. We have to do more with less, always have and always will. The flavor of the month coach doesn't change those things simply with his name. I agree that the program is in better shape now than when Bo took over. the heights we fell from were staggering and it could not have been much lower by the end of the Pederson/Callahan reign. Bo is one of the main reasons the program has stabilized and sits on the verge of making it over that next hump. That took some work and a lot of effort to accomplish. That is why I believe now is when we should be giving Bo time to make the next step. He did pretty darn well with the first phase so why do so many doubt he's the right person for the next phase? I do not feel it is fair or even reasonable to compare us to some other teams that may have some grand accomplishment within five years of hiring a new coach. Name one of those teams that was as low as Nebraska was at the beginning of that 5 year period. Bo led us to the plateau and now he has to finish getting us to the summit. I see nothing yet that indicates he can't get the job done. Programs don't make that leap in only 5 years with the recruiting handicaps we have. Seriously, what coaches and what programs are having succuss now that can legitimately be compared to what we've had to endure to get back to where we are now? Bob stoops, Brian Kelly, chip Kelly, chizik, beliema, hoke, tressel have all made bcs bowl appearances within 5 years of their most recent hire I believe. As far as what we endured? Everybody says bo walked into plenty of talent.

Patience is not overrated and building stability will never be outdated. The landscape of college football may be slightly different now (more parity) but you still have to go out there and smash the other team in the face and win on Saturdays. The biggest change for Nebraska has been that we lost the stable, reload every year system that TO built. We still have the same recruiting handicaps we've always had. Those were softened by a winning tradition (which is on the mend under Pelini) and by having an excellent player developement regime and work hard ethic. We have to do more with less, always have and always will. The flavor of the month coach doesn't change those things simply with his name. I agree that the program is in better shape now than when Bo took over. the heights we fell from were staggering and it could not have been much lower by the end of the Pederson/Callahan reign. Bo is one of the main reasons the program has stabilized and sits on the verge of making it over that next hump. That took some work and a lot of effort to accomplish. That is why I believe now is when we should be giving Bo time to make the next step. He did pretty darn well with the first phase so why do so many doubt he's the right person for the next phase? I do not feel it is fair or even reasonable to compare us to some other teams that may have some grand accomplishment within five years of hiring a new coach. Name one of those teams that was as low as Nebraska was at the beginning of that 5 year period. Bo led us to the plateau and now he has to finish getting us to the summit. I see nothing yet that indicates he can't get the job done. Programs don't make that leap in only 5 years with the recruiting handicaps we have. Seriously, what coaches and what programs are having succuss now that can legitimately be compared to what we've had to endure to get back to where we are now?

Playing devil's advocate here, but the common theme that a lot of posters mention is patience and continuity. What if patience is overrated and outdated? The landscape of college football is much different than it was 15 - 20 years ago. Hear me out, I'm not saying Fire Bo, but the program, now is obviously better than what he took over. I do believe that whoever follows Bo will certainly inherit a better program, when that day comes. He did what he was supposed to do which was basically stabilize the program. It's time to take it to the next level. I'm still on the fence on what needs to be done, but deep down, I just don't think he can do it. But, if you look around the country, coaches that are winning championships / playing for BCS bowls are doing it in their first 5 years with a team. As stated numerous times, you don't fire a coach with the number of wins that he has though. I get it, so basically we are left with 9 - 10 win purgatory until Bo can find a better job or some scandal i.e. Tressel forces us to find a new coach. On the plus side, keeping Bo is the SAFE play and maybe he gets us over the hump, but looking around the country at the way coaches are having success NOW, it looks like you have to hire the hot name and put tons of pressure and expectations on them to succeed. Just for the sake of discussion, (he would NEVER get hired at NU nor do I want him to) what do you think Petrino could do at NU?

I'm not going to compare total number of TD's and INT's, because they played different amounts of games and we resembled a normal offense with some balance under Keller. Joe threw for 510 yards and 7 touchdowns against Kansas State...Sam would never be able to have games like that, not due to lack of talent, but because he would never have the playcalls to accomplish it. Anyways, we're making a mountain out of a molehill. I just don't see why he gets ragged on so much - he was good. No big deal, I think Keller was good, but I had bought into the hype he was going to be GREAT. That obviously is different for every person, but I just seem to remember Keller as a disappointment. The stats do surprise me though. I had no idea he threw for that many yards prior to getting hurt. Your point about Billy pulling out all the stops for Ganz is also valid as well. Good perspective. Thank you.

I hope your right, but if i had a nickel for every qb recruit that was supposed to be the next big thing........Cody is just one example, what about Carnes, Turner, Keller was a bust in IMO, transfer i know, but you can still go back to Beck, Dukes, Dailey, insert whatever heralded qb that didn't amount to squat......you get the idea. Keller was set to re-write all of our passing records if he would have remained healthy, actually. Don't know why he gets so disrespected. I'm not sure how much respect he deserves? Was he really going to re-write the records with his 1 season of eligibility? He was OK, but the offense improved when he got hurt and Ganz came in. But still, there is long line of other qb's that didn't pan out.

I hope your right, but if i had a nickel for every qb recruit that was supposed to be the next big thing........Cody is just one example, what about Carnes, Turner, Keller was a bust in IMO, transfer i know, but you can still go back to Beck, Dukes, Dailey, insert whatever heralded qb that didn't amount to squat......you get the idea.

Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field. I don't even think it's a given that we'll see all the best talent on the field. I'll be kind of surprised if there isn't at least a few high character* guys who work their way into the starting lineup because of their playbook knowledge. *slow, white Aren't we running out of kids whose parents work / have worked in administration or are coaches on the team......oh wait there's a pelini and a few cotton kids. Jk, from what i've seen the pelini kid and cotton's kids have played well. I admit, i got a chuckle about your high character comment. seems we have one of those at safety far too often. Then again, maybe i just can't seem to forget about Cassidy

Agreed. I also have reservations about all the hype towards Armstrong and Stanton. I guess we have just been burned too many times. People tend to fall in love with players before they even see the field.

I respect your opinion, but what what's stuck in my mind is losing by 39 points to a team (Wisconsin) we had beaten earlier in the year. That's not talent or injuries, that's coaching in terms of game planning, motivation, and in-game adjustments. It's hard to just write that loss off and point to 10 wins...there are some missing ingredients in that overall staff that allowed such a brutal beat down like that to take place. I get where you're coming from, but think about this for a second. What was the spread for the CCG and who was favored? Last check, NU was FAVORED to win by 2.5 or 3 points. Obviously, we lost by 39 points. That means vegas was wrong by 42 points, on the wrong team. This is why i look at that game as an anomoly. Even vegas had no clue. In all fairness, we shouldn't have won the game in Lincoln, but did. Which pretty much supports my point that maybe Bo did a phenomenal job coaching this year if we found a way to win games that some want to paint as we had no business winning. That's the other side of the coin I see. "Our coaches suck, we had no business winning that game". Well we did win it. Maybe they aint so bad. Alot of the negativity we see is so contradictory to itself from what I see. I'm not on the "our coaches suck" side but good coaches / good teams find ways to win. It would have been way too easy to fold on many occasions. However, I can't quite give the coaches a "pass" either, because I think flawed game plans going into games didn't always do us favors either, which put us behind at times. My comment about being lucky to beat them the first time had more to do with Ameer's fumble and Ball's fumble, which was never even supposed to happen. Im just kind of in the middle with this staff i guess. Is Bo a good coach, yeah I'll go with that, but "phenomenal" is a little strong for me.

I respect your opinion, but what what's stuck in my mind is losing by 39 points to a team (Wisconsin) we had beaten earlier in the year. That's not talent or injuries, that's coaching in terms of game planning, motivation, and in-game adjustments. It's hard to just write that loss off and point to 10 wins...there are some missing ingredients in that overall staff that allowed such a brutal beat down like that to take place. I get where you're coming from, but think about this for a second. What was the spread for the CCG and who was favored? Last check, NU was FAVORED to win by 2.5 or 3 points. Obviously, we lost by 39 points. That means vegas was wrong by 42 points, on the wrong team. This is why i look at that game as an anomoly. Even vegas had no clue. In all fairness, we shouldn't have won the game in Lincoln, but did.

Agree. There are plenty of ways to look at this season negatively, but next year will be better. The RS and JUCOS will NOT turn the defense into worldbeaters IMO. The offense and special teams will improve regarding turnovers though, which will drastically help the D as well. Despite what people will tell you, the B1G is better than the general perception. The bowl season shows this IMO. B1G was very competitive with the SEC. Stopping making excuses for the SEC. I don't have any stats to support my opinion, but this team "looked" better to me this year than last year.

I would say Dirk is somewhat correct on with his assessment. The Nebraska brand is what it is. It's the same reason we will be a top 25 preseason team next year and have been the last couple years. Just because Bo isn't giving Dirk his sales pitch doesn't mean he doesn't have a good one. How are these for example: Every game you plan in will be sold out, you will live like a rockstar because NU football has no other competition (ie. other in state schools / nfl), be a part of storied tradition. these are just a few. I believe that Bo intentionally bit the bullet this year with not using up red shirts. We will be better off in the long run due to this season's sacrifices. Honestly, what was Snider's pitch? we will play clean football every single year and develop unbelievable talent? Don't get me wrong, Snider has done a tremendous job but it isn't something you're going to repeat very often. This article seems more like "fan boy" Dirk than anything else. he makes it seem like Nebraska needs to have some signiture trait because of the "everybody else is doing it" mentality. It just seems like an overreaction to me.

Not really disagreeing with you but my perspective on the in-state / out-of-state views on Bo boil down to exposure. Those living in NE read all the papers, watch EVERY game and tend to see Bo with the good and bad (mostly good, a few exceptions). Out of state fans are not likely as exposed and are judging Bo from a smaller sample size. Makes it easier to make a quick judgement. just my .02

you're right, they aren't on the team anymore. Would you expect to hear anything negative? And as for nothing bad being said...did you forget about one of the best recruits in the Pelini era...Tyler Moore? What about Klatchko. How about Rome? That's only a small percentage of the team, but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say it's always sunshine and hugs in that locker room. We have had a huge number of high profile transfers in the last couple of years, and it would be naive to think they were all for no other reason than the selfishness of the player. Tyler Moore and the Rome thing bit us in the ass this year. That is 2 very public instances that disprove your second paragraph...and 2 very obvious instances where it impacted the team negatively. We missed Moore a lot this year, and Rome was essentially sidelined the rest of the year and his progress was stalled. Eh, yes and no. Moore and Klatchko I'll give ya, but Rome basically sat out the Idaho St game and played the rest of the season. He played A LOT towards the end of the year especially. I think most fans look at the Rome incident as a positive because he was given a 2nd chance and worked his way back on the field (helps when there is zero depth, mind you). As percentage though, i don't think we have any more transfers / players leaving the program than anyone else. It doesn't mean we didn't lose some key guys and talent but sometimes that's the way it goes.

you are correct - but he committed in August. 5 months before Bo Pelini ever came into the picture. Damn you. Why bring facts into this to steal my thunder? haha - no worries. It is fairly concerning though - essentially, in 5 classes Bo has yet to recruit a defensive tackle to NU that is even average at their position. Suh, Stein, Crick were Cally's, and even the DE that is having to shift to fill the spot vacated by an injured Cally recruit is another Cally recruit. Quentin Toaila - 3* - MISS Cole Pensick - 3* - OL Thad Randle - 3* - Holding down a starting spot out of necessity not skill Jay Guy - 3* - MISS Chase Rome - 4* - Questionable Todd Peat - 4* - Yet to make an impact Kevin Williams 3* - yet to make an impact Aaron Currey - 3* - still young Vincent Valentine - 3* - still young That means in 5 classes...Bo only recruited a total 7 guys to fill the 2 most vital positions on his defense - positions that are constantly riddled with injuries (as is the case on most teams). Meanwhile, during that same period we recruited 22 DBs. Oh, and during that same period - we only signed 17 guys to fill the 5 spots on the offensive line (5 of which are gone). Hmmm...take a guess which of those 3 positions is the strongest. Any idea why we lack depth on the OL/DL? Wow. I had no idea it was so lopsided. Thanks KC, your post basically explains everything that is currently wrong with the holes in this team. Any idea if the prospects for the 2013 class are any different?