dallas ag

Just to add one more thing that Ags and Huskers agree on - 95% of the Ags I know (maybe 100%) wanted to leave this stupid conference that we are about to be in for the SEC and are jealous of you guys getting out of the tu 10 conference, or whatever the hell it will be called... Hopefully, we'll start reversing the recent trends and revert back to the days when I was in school when we absolutely dominated tu here shortly... also, hopefully, we'll get the balls that NU had (and that maybe TJE was trying to steal from Cotton ) and head off to the SEC sometime in the near future. Good luck in the B10!

Howdy y'all. First off, I want to say good luck this Friday and I really hope you win the B12 this year (unless we somehow backdoor into the game, of course!). I want to say thanks for all of the awesome visits that I have had up to Lincoln over the years and I am going to miss that. Did my part yesterday by doling out food and beers to any Husker fans that went by our tailgate... Special shoutout to the 'Mad Hatter' NU fan from Des Moines that shared his "Big Red Apple Pie" hooch with us... As far as the game, being at the game, I guess I still haven't seen some of the things that you guys saw on TV. I can tell you that I was very surprised at the # of calls that went against NU as compared with the # we got. The only one I remember being blatantly bad was the roughing the passer at the end and, unfortunately, that led to our game-winning FG. That said, A&M fans know how you feel - we have been on your end of those ref screw jobs for years and have had to battle through that a lot this year, too - esp. against OU and Baylor. I guess we are lucky that you guys chose to go to the B10 this year and the B12 refs are *apparently* incentivized to make it as hard for NU to win games as possible. At the end of the day, as a fan, I know that a win is a win and I'll take it, although I wish we could've done it under better circumstances. Anyways - beat the hell outta CU and OU/OSU - and good luck next year in the b10!

FYI, our horrible pass defense held OSU to 284 yards passing. OSU had 283 against Nebraska. Cool story and all aggy fan, but c'mon dude. You serious? It's nice that you have that 12th man vibe rockin and all, but Saturday is not going to be kind to you. Reading through your posts it seems as if you guys are almost trying to talk yourselves into it. Can't. Wait. We played OU two games ago - I think most of you seem to either have forgotten that - or want to pretend it didn't happen. We only beat them by 2 td's. As far as our pass d, we are ranked low when it comes to yards, but our pass efficiency rating is 4th in the conference. Doesn't matter, really, anyways, since your passing offense is terrible. Martinez, when healthy, is a fantastic runner, but only an average passer and your wr's are more likely to catch a cold than catch the ball - particularly Paul. We'll have to see strength against strength. Can NU line up and run the ball consistently on our d? Is Martinez healthy enough to be the running threat he was earlier this year or not? I can tell you this, we are not trying to talk ourselves into anything - with homefield - almost every A&M fan I know is as confident as you are that A&M wins this game... including me... Gig 'em!

I think you missed the point of that post. How that "not that good" offense torched (to use your term) your defense for 30 points. I think you missed the point. What Mizzou did to our defense has no relevance to how our offense matches up with your defense. The fact is Mizzou's offense isn't that good. I'm not saying they are bad, either... Now, if you want me to delve into that irrelevancy, I would tell you that the Mizzou game was the season's low point for us for sure. I would say that our offense was abysmal in that game (JJ's last full game) and that, I believe, our defense played its worst game of the season partially b/c our offense was so inept. Either way, this is a major league digression from the simple fact that your defense has faced 9 stiffs and one live body this year in terms of offenses... A&M is 4th in the B12 and 12th in the country in total offense - so, we will be the second live body you will have faced... The first put up 41 on you. How will we do? It's tough to tell how the Aggie offense will do vs the Blackshirts. No doubt about it. There's a small sample size with Tannehill at the helm, and that sample size consists of three teams we have not faced, and may not face at all this season (TTech, Oklahoma and Baylor). Obviously aTm put up solid offensive numbers against each of them (see below). Of the three defenses Tannehill has faced, it's clear Oklahoma has the best defense. -TTech gave up 623 yards (174 rushing, 449 passing) and 6 TDs. -Baylor gave up 427 yards (147 rushing, 280 passing) and 5 TDs (the 6th TD was special teams). -Oklahoma gave up 382 yards (157 rushing, 225 passing) and 3 TDs (the 4th TD was ST). That being said, Oklahoma's D ranks 60th in the country in total defense and 27th in scoring defense. Whereas Nebraska ranks 6th and 10th in those same categories, respectively. But, then you could argue that OU has faced much better offenses than Nebraska, and you'd be right on because the fact of the matter is we've had a cupcake schedule by comparison. I guess the point here is that arguments about how a defense ranks in certain categories is a moot discussion. So, I'm just going to conclude this whole mess by saying, "Let's get this show on the road already!" I cannot wait to see how the Blackshirts do against the Aggie offense. Both seem to be hitting on all cylinders since last week, so both have momentum coming into this game. It's going to be fun to see which unit makes the bigger impact 'cause they're on a collision course that could very well dictate the winner when the clock hits 00:00. I agree 100% with all of this! I predicted a close, and relatively low scoring, game with A&M winning 28-24, but this one could definitely go either way...

Your winningest coach in history had a lot more skins on the wall than ours. You did fire Solich after he was pretty darned successful, though. Further, RC's record was declining each year and he was getting beaten in recruiting badly by Mack and Stoops. We had to make a change and, unfortunately, Fran wasn't the guy. As far as comparing Callahan and Sherman - I see the similarities that you note, but I think there is one HUGE difference between the 2. Callahan basically came up there and spit on Husker traditions and Dr. Tom. Why anyone would do that at such a proud and historic program as NU is beyond me. Fran did that to some degree at A&M, too - not quite as bad as Callahan, but he was never fully embraced by our school and wasn't a cultural fit. Pelini and Sherman do share that trait, as both have embraced the history of the program and are seeing dividends. The state of the program that Sherman inherited was simply embarrassing in terms of talent. Somehow, in 2008, we only had 9 scholarship OL left on the roster total! Further, we were lacking speed and talent across the board. No one could've won with the team that Sherm inherited. We believe we are witnessing the turnaround as we speak, as the difference in talent level and production between this team and the teams we have had over the last 10 years or so is night and day. So, I think you are a little early to be taking the base level comparisons you applied to Sherman and Callahan at face value. In December 1988, R.C. Slocum was named head coach at Texas A&M. During his 14 years as head coach, Slocum led the Aggies to a record of 123–47–2, making him the winningest coach in Texas A&M history. During his career, Slocum never had a losing season and won four conference championships, including the Big 12 title in 1998. Additionally, he led the Aggies to become the first school in the Southwest Conference history to post three consecutive perfect conference seasons. Slocum reached 100 wins faster than any other active coach. He has the best winning percentage in SWC history, one spot ahead of the legendary coach Darrell Royal who is number 2. Slocum helped make A&M's Kyle Field become one of the hardest places for opponents to play, losing only 12 games at home in 14 years. For over a year, A&M held the longest home-winning streak in the nation, losing in 1989 and not again until late in 1995. In the 1990s, A&M lost only four times at Kyle Field. Slocum was named SWC Coach of the Year three times during his tenure as head coach. His "Wrecking Crew" defense led the SWC in four statistical categories from 1991 through 1993 and led the nation in total defense in 1991. While you say you had to make a change, but maybe there was more to it. This might shed some light as to why Slocum was getting outrecruited: Slocum continually pressed Texas A&M to update the athletic facilities so that the university could compete with rivals Texas and Oklahoma in football recruiting. Officials finally listened to his pleas and began a large facility expansion project. This was too late to save Slocum. He was fired in 2002 after a 6–6 season, which included a win over number-one-ranked Oklahoma. He was succeeded by Dennis Franchione as head coach. Nebraska also seemed more willing to upgrade facilities after Solich was gone. I did find one more nugget in terms of comparing Clownahan to Sherman. The loss in 2008 to the Texas Longhorns was their worst in the series since 1898. This compares to Clownahan's losses to Texas Tech in 04' and KU in 07'. I'm really not trying to bag on A&M at all, but you do have to admit there are a lot of similarities between Clownahan and Sherman. I believe Slocum got a raw deal. While Slocum did only have a 6-6 season the year he was fired, he had an identical season in 1996. He followed up the 6-6 season in 96' by winning the Big 12 South in 97'. Slocum won his conference nearly 30% of the time. Mack Brown at Texas has only won his conference around 15% of the time. I think it should also be noted that Slocum inherited a huge problem when he was hired as A&M was on probation his first two years as head coach. Slocum's 6-6 season during 1996 was a sign of the beginning of the end, but it was coming on the heels of a successful 7 year run, including the best 4 year stretch we have had in the modern era (1991-1994). We were able to back up that 6-6 year with back-to-back south titles and the B12 Championship in 1998. However, by 2002, we had gone from being the premier program in the South (arguably) to clearly being only the third best in the south and there were no trends that suggested we were going to turn anything around. In 1999, we came into the year with a top 5 program and turned in a disappointing 9-3 year. In 2000 and 2001, we were stunningly mediocre with 7-5 and 8-r records and the 2002 team had no excuse for going 6-6. That was the last year we had legitimate NFL talent in our defense (5 players that were drafted in 2002, I believe) and, yet, we still gave up yards and points in bunches, including yielding and embarrassing come-from-ahead loss to NU (as well as 2 or 3 others at home that year). It was entirely clear that Slocum had reached the end of his era and it was a very easy choice to fire him. Those that say they regret it now only say so b/c Fran didn't work out. Those were two separate decisions, however. Firing Slocum equaled the right thing to do. Hiring Fran, in retrospect, equaled the wrong hire (although I contend that we couldn't have known that at the time). If we had kept RC any longer, we wouldn't be in any better position than we are now. In fact, much as I disavowed Sherman's responsibility for his 4-8 year, I would say that Fran also inherited a mess from RC in terms of talent on our roster that year. That 2003 defense was painfully bad and untalented - and that was the direct result of RC's late-career failures. Further, as no one has even given RC a sniff as a potential coach since then (and he tried), I fail to see how firing him wasn't the right move at that time. Now skipping back to Sherman - I was not a fan of his hiring, either. Many A&M fans were underwhelmed, at best, with his hire. However, he has definitely upgraded our talent and we are playing very well right now - about as well as we have played in 10 years. Fran had a 9-4 year in 2007, but the team that year didn't play as consistently as this one and this one appears to have more NFL talent than anything we have seen since a decade ago. Sherman has done a solid job to this point and recent history suggests that he will be a lot more successful here than 'Clownahan' was up there. For the first time in a long time, I (and most fans I know) feel good about the direction of our program.

I'll say this: I've been to college football games around the country and NU is my #1 favorite road trip. Here's one quick reason why: I made the trip in '99 and had numerous husker fans buy a beer for me and talk about the game before the game. Then the game happened and NU kicked our ass and I had more husker fans buy me beer after the game and talk about the game. That kind of stuff does happen in other places, too, but it still felt different up at NU. In '07 I found out why that felt different. Same scenario as before - husker fans bought a beer for me before the game and wanted to talk about the game. Then we ended up winning that game pretty easily, racking up over 300 yards rushing in the process, during the end of Callahan's tenure. After the game, a group of us went over to that Holiday Inn bar downtown and sat down at a table. No less than 4 different groups of husker fans still stopped by our table, after getting their asses kicked, and congratulated us on our win - wished us well for the rest of the year - and offered to buy us beers. THAT is unique. I was looking forward to making another trip up there next year and I am tremendously disappointed that this is NU's last year in the conference... That said, I am also very proud of our home field tradition at Kyle Field and I would stack our fans up against anyone's in terms of intensity, noise and hospitality. I look forward to buying some beers for husker fans on Saturday and/or welcoming them to our tailgate and, hopefully, once again demonstrating why A&M has one of the top gameday traditions in the country...

Your winningest coach in history had a lot more skins on the wall than ours. You did fire Solich after he was pretty darned successful, though. Further, RC's record was declining each year and he was getting beaten in recruiting badly by Mack and Stoops. We had to make a change and, unfortunately, Fran wasn't the guy. As far as comparing Callahan and Sherman - I see the similarities that you note, but I think there is one HUGE difference between the 2. Callahan basically came up there and spit on Husker traditions and Dr. Tom. Why anyone would do that at such a proud and historic program as NU is beyond me. Fran did that to some degree at A&M, too - not quite as bad as Callahan, but he was never fully embraced by our school and wasn't a cultural fit. Pelini and Sherman do share that trait, as both have embraced the history of the program and are seeing dividends. The state of the program that Sherman inherited was simply embarrassing in terms of talent. Somehow, in 2008, we only had 9 scholarship OL left on the roster total! Further, we were lacking speed and talent across the board. No one could've won with the team that Sherm inherited. We believe we are witnessing the turnaround as we speak, as the difference in talent level and production between this team and the teams we have had over the last 10 years or so is night and day. So, I think you are a little early to be taking the base level comparisons you applied to Sherman and Callahan at face value.

I would say that someone that is 4-3 when PICKING UPSETS is actually doing a pretty good job. Of course, not if he considers 2.5 point underdogs upsets... Would it really be an upset for A&M to win this game?

I think you missed the point of that post. How that "not that good" offense torched (to use your term) your defense for 30 points. I think you missed the point. What Mizzou did to our defense has no relevance to how our offense matches up with your defense. The fact is Mizzou's offense isn't that good. I'm not saying they are bad, either... Now, if you want me to delve into that irrelevancy, I would tell you that the Mizzou game was the season's low point for us for sure. I would say that our offense was abysmal in that game (JJ's last full game) and that, I believe, our defense played its worst game of the season partially b/c our offense was so inept. Either way, this is a major league digression from the simple fact that your defense has faced 9 stiffs and one live body this year in terms of offenses... A&M is 4th in the B12 and 12th in the country in total offense - so, we will be the second live body you will have faced... The first put up 41 on you. How will we do?

While I would agree that Mizzou is the 2nd best offense you have faced this year, Mizzou is only 7th in the conference and 40th in the country in offense... So... not that good.

I'll say this: I've been to college football games around the country and NU is my #1 favorite road trip. Here's one quick reason why: I made the trip in '99 and had numerous husker fans buy a beer for me and talk about the game before the game. Then the game happened and NU kicked our ass and I had more husker fans buy me beer after the game and talk about the game. That kind of stuff does happen in other places, too, but it still felt different up at NU. In '07 I found out why that felt different. Same scenario as before - husker fans bought a beer for me before the game and wanted to talk about the game. Then we ended up winning that game pretty easily, racking up over 300 yards rushing in the process, during the end of Callahan's tenure. After the game, a group of us went over to that Holiday Inn bar downtown and sat down at a table. No less than 4 different groups of husker fans still stopped by our table, after getting their asses kicked, and congratulated us on our win - wished us well for the rest of the year - and offered to buy us beers. THAT is unique. I was looking forward to making another trip up there next year and I am tremendously disappointed that this is NU's last year in the conference... That said, I am also very proud of our home field tradition at Kyle Field and I would stack our fans up against anyone's in terms of intensity, noise and hospitality. I look forward to buying some beers for husker fans on Saturday and/or welcoming them to our tailgate and, hopefully, once again demonstrating why A&M has one of the top gameday traditions in the country...

You could also argue that the passing offenses that Nebraska has played have been largely unimpressive outside of Mizzou and OSU. Idaho is the #6 passing offense in the country. Ok, so 3 of 10? I'm not saying NU doesn't have a good D, quite the opposite actually as I think you guys are the best defensive unit we'll see this season. I just think this is a game where it's tough to compare stats because of how these two teams have played this season. Nebraska has been very up-and-down inconsistent and A&M is a totally different team the last 3 games than the first 7. So they've been good in 3 of 10? It should be a good game. We've been good in the last 4 - which is different than just picking a random set of games - it's about momentum. I hear you on passing defenses that Tannehill has faced in terms of Tech and Baylor, but OU is 3rd in the conference in pass defense and 2nd in pass efficiency defense. Additionally, as far as passing offenses that NU has faced, unimpressive is an understatement. Even 2 of the 3 that the other Ag here cited aren't that great - Mizzou does not have that good of a passing offense (8th in the B12) and let's get real about Idaho... OSU is the only legit passing and running team you have played and they torched your defense for 41 points. Outside of Oklahoma State, your defense hasn't even faced an offense ranked in the top 6 in the B12. 5 of your 6 conference opponents have total offenses ranked in the bottom 6, to say it another way. Plus, your offense has played the 5 worst passing offenses in the B12 (outside of your own). So, while I agree that your defense is pretty good, I'm not sure that they haven't feasted off of playing poor offenses, too...

I think it's pretty funny that you assert that we might not be ready for a top 10 opponent when we just beat the crap outta OU two weeks ago... Also, using common opponents generally works, but you have to factor in that we have had a major change to our team since the losses to OSU and Mizzou - changing QB's. Since changing from JJ to Tannehill, we have been a different team and you really need to evaluate our play over the last 4 weeks with a little more significance than what happened earlier. The team that lost at home to Missouri wouldn't stand a chance on Saturday against the Huskers, but our current team will be more than competitive. We have become a pretty balanced team across the board over the last 4 weeks. Our running game has gotten stronger, despite the loss of our starting RB (Christine Michael), with Cyrus Gray - who isn't a slouch, hitting his stride and rushing for 100+ in each of the last 4 games. Part of the reason for that is the improved play of our very young OL (start 2 true FR at both tackle positions and 2 sophs at the guards) and part of that has been a more balanced approach to play-calling with the insertion of Tannehill. JJ's top-end potential is greater than Tannehill's, but JJ just wasn't the same this year after his shoulder surgery in the offseason and he had become an inaccurate turnover machine. However, Sherman was still calling plays with JJ like we had 2009 JJ and it was killing us. Since putting Tannehill in, he has balanced the play-calling and our current offense relies on our playmakers to make plays rather than just JJ. Jeff Fuller is one of the top WR's in the country and he has had a dominant year, but Ryan Swope has emerged as a solid second weapon WR and we still have big-play EZ Nwachukwu as our third threat. Defensively, Von Miller is the straw that stirs the drink. His numbers are down vs. last year, but his production is actually up. He has gone from being a one-dimensional pass rusher to a guy that makes big plays all over the field. Overall, our defense has become a much more aggressive and physical unit as the year has gone on under the direction of first-year DC, Tim DeRuyter. Our special teams have also become a weapon in a dramatic one-year turnaround. Our ST were flat-awful last year, but we have gotten consistent FG kicking from Randy Bullock (11-14 on the year) and decent punting out of Ryan Epperson (not a great classic kicker, but his punts are so weird that we get a good net). Our kick return game is very strong, with Coryell Judie having kickoff returns for TD's in back-to-back weeks against OU and BU - the first two games that he has returned kicks. He has 2 TD's in 7 returns. Finally, we should have a pretty good homefield advantage this week. I know the Huskers have been very strong on the road, but our crowd is pretty unique across college football. I have traveled all across the country for college football games and I would be hard pressed to name a louder, more focused fanbase than ours. We will also have the largest student crowd ever to watch a college football game (I believe) with 30K+ - and they fill up a whole side of our stadium. I have been to 3 NU games in Lincoln and I can honestly say that NU is my absolute favorite road trip. I think your fans are second to none in terms of hospitality and faithful support. However, I know our crowd is louder and this is a game that we are all pointing to right now - this game has become bigger than any tu game in recent memory. While I wish you guys good luck, I believe this is a game that we will ultimately pull out in the end - 28-24 Ags...