ColoradoHusk

Valentine hopes that he can be a 4-5th round pick and do well as a 3-4 nose tackle. Then he can make good money with his 2nd contract. He already has his degree, he probably doesn't want to put another year of wear and tear in college.

All this talk about turnovers and penalties brings up a simple point about how NU needs to get back to having regular 10-11 win seasons and competing for conference/national championships. NU needs to get back to having dominating teams and superior talent where they aren't having more than 2 or 3 close games a year. The past few years, NU has faced 5 or 6 close games per year. Some years, NU wins all or most of those games (see 2012) and there are years like 2015 where NU will lose all or most of those close games. If NU is regularly winning games by 14-20+ points, then penalties and turnovers aren't as big of a concern. The penalties and turnovers are a bigger problem when the team has a propensity for close games all the time.

OU sent some tackling dummies and Gatorade buckets, as they will get Murray for more years of eligibility.

I like NU's receivers, but they had times this past year where they struggled to get open. Teams would bracket Westerkamp and would challenge our wide-outs one on one. The Reilly catch against Michigan State is a perfect example. Yes, it counted, but 9 times out of 10, Reilly is deemed an ineligible receiver because he went out of bounds to avoid the contact by the DB. The reason I would like an offense that emphasizes the run, because if NU is able to get the run game going, it forces the defense to bring an extra defender out of coverage. This creates more open spaces for the receivers and makes it easier for Armstrong to get the ball to the receivers. The overall receptions might go down slightly, but the pass plays would be bigger and have more impact. The pass to Stanley Morgan in the Foster Farms bowl was a perfect example. it's 1st and 10, and Morgan has one on one coverage. Armstrong knew his read right away, and Morgan made a great play.

January and February generally suck. I get sick of the cold weather and the eternal darkness. NFL Playoffs are nice, but that's only a short reprieve on the weekends. Other than that, it's just basic survival for the next 2 months.

Anything that makes us look less like Wisconsin barring major changes is fine by me. As far as I'm concerned, if anyone need to change how they look, it should be Wisconsin as they (via Barry) are the ones copying us. The original shouldn't change; that province belongs to the imitator. Wisconsin is moving to Under Armour next year, so they won't have the basically the exact same Adidas uniform as NU. I am sure they will look similar, but Under Armour may have a slightly different template.

Right, and the top echelon teams are on their own level. They consistently pull in more of the best athletes and football players than anyone else. This is an incontrovertible fact. This is why they are top echelon programs. NU is not a top echelon program and hasn't been since before Frank got fired. If we want to get back to being a top echelon team then we MUST do a better job of recruiting across the board. How do you suggest NU do that? Cheat? Rehire John Blake (read: cheat)? I'm asking because NU has poured an unprecedented amount of money into recruiting this year (last estimate I read was 3x the amounts spent during previous to this year) and the class is in the 30s. People looking for salvation at the recruitnik well are going to be left feeling sour. Why do you think we have to cheat to get good players here? Instead of that, how about we look at what programs are consistently in the top 10 in recruiting and try to copy what they are doing? I'd bet that most of them are doing similar things. In regards to our class ranking right now, who cares what it is right now? This class isn't done yet. Oh, you mean relocate the campus?Yep, Lincoln, Florida.

Ok, I've worded my post poorly. I would rather have Nebraska have more talent than their opponent, and if that means my opponents struggling in bowl games which in turn forces them to struggle in recruiting, then so be it. I just don't get the feeling why I would want my opponents to "get better". If they are getting better, the more likely they are to beat me, and I don't want that.

Lubick was calling a good game in the first half. Looks like Adams got hurt and hasn't played in the 2nd half.

Why? If he can get paid $3m+ a year to coach there on tenure, why not stay? Because he wants to chase an NC? He could theoretically do that at Houston about as easily as most P5 schools not named USC, Alabama, OSU, Michigan, FSU et al.Most coaches are competitive SOB's who will always want to test themselves to see if they are the best. Hermann won't get that competition at Houston, and will seek a bigger job in the next few years. It's what all the best coaches do.

I also don't get why we should root for our conference teams. If they do better, they become more attractive to recruits, and that takes talent away from NU and make them better in the future. I know the saying is "if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best" (thanks, Ric Flair) but honestly I want NU to get as many wins as possible each year, even if it means a weaker schedule.

I don't see how NU gets any money back. Els' contract would have ran through the 2015 season.

Convenient for you to support one of the previous staff but yet can't find a way to support the current staff I would support the current staff if they did anything worth while to support wholeheartedly.

WowSo, your answer is "worse", it makes you feel worse. Got it. Yes. Worse. Forgot to state the obvious. Have there been lots of people feeling better about our season due to the MSU and Iowa bowl results? Didn't think so...... unless they are simply deluding themselves and desperately trying to put a positive spin on things. See RADAR.

I thought we had a good chance of beating UCLA. I thought the fans who thought we would get blown out watched a different season than I did. I don't think Stanford would destroy us but Alabama/Clemson/Ohio State probably would. I think those 3 you just listed are probably the best 3 teams this year. Stanford is probably 4, and a healthy Oregon is probably not very far behind (up for debate) They aren't even in the top 30 in S&P ratings. That's true, but you know as well as I, they are a top 15-20 team. When Oregon was healthy, they beat Washington, USC, and Stanford. Who are all in the top 25 of those ALL HOLY S&P ratings. I don't expect you to be on the same team as I when arguing but everyone around the country that pays attention to college football as a whole (not just to the Huskers) knows that Oregon's QB broke his index finger on his throwing hand in the Eastern Washington game. Played through it at Michigan State and if you even have a clue to who Vernon Adams is, you know he was off and that over throw at the end of the game to Byron Marshall was due to that injury. That is common knowledge to those who follow the sport closely outside of their favorite teams. Michigan State was also in the top 25 of those rankings. I might have stretched it a little being the top 5 whatever, but if you look at how the season unfolded, and if Oregon was healthy. They beat MSU, and sure as heck don't lose to WSU in the last 3 mins. Finishing 11-1, beat USC again in the Pac12 title game, and a playoff berth. I would say that injuries are part of the game, and it was Oregon's fault that they didn't have a reliable QB they could turn to when Adams was hurt. Michigan State had the biggest win of their season over Ohio State when Connor Cook was out with an injury. The best teams are able to adapt and overcome injuries when they happen.

Els was LB coach in 2011, for 2 guys named Lavonte David and Will Compton. I know those guys are ultra-talented, but I would say that Els does get some credit for improving their play at NU and getting them ready for the NFL.

The only reason he was a high school assistant last year was because he was still being paid his NU contract and he wanted to stay in Lincoln with his kids. You are acting like he has never been a D-1 assistant coach.He was widely considered the worst position coach on Pelini's staff. And now he's going to a Big Ten school as a coordinator. All that says is that people might not know what they're talking about. I like Bray but it's possible our LBs were better than people gave them credit for. Only 2 of our LBs that played this year had significant coaching under Els. And one of them would have transferred if we didn't get new coaches. So I'm not sure you can credit Els for anything that happened at LB this year. Well you can credit him for our horrible depth. Ross Els was the reason Jared Alfalava was a bad kid and got booted from the team? Was he also responsible for that one LB transferring away from NU to Kentucky? Did Els tear up Rose-Ivey's knee before the 2014 season? Els was responsible for coaching the LB's in the scheme that Bo wanted him to. I'm not saying Els is a super awesome coach, but he can only do so much in a certain situation.

He was a poor position coach and got promoted to a coordinator. But continue to troll away. But he had 2 years experience being a DC at NMSU. Why do people think that good position coaches would automatically make them a good defensive coordinator? A DC has to be able to design a D and make the appropriate defensive calls during the game. To me, they are fairly different responsibilities.

And Mo Purify fumbled at NU's 10 yard line after catching a simple pass at the LOS on the game's first play from scrimmage.

I see what you did there. Hahahaha.

It was mainly the 1999 team with Stonehands Dan Alexander at I-back. That team led the nation in fumbles with like 25. I remember the NU-CU game that year. Mike Brown rips the ball out of the CU RB's hands to give NU the ball at CU's 25 yard line late in the 4th quarter. The next play, Crouch runs a perfect option and pitches it to Alexander who would have gotten a huge gain on the play. The ball his Alexander right in his hands and bounced away and CU recovered. It was just an example of all the fumbles that year. Buckhalter also had a fumble at the 2 yard line in the 4th quarter against Texas, which was NU's only loss in 1999.

Pretty convenient, isn't it? Coaches don't get hired to comparable positions: See how much these coaches suck! Coaches get "promotions" when hired by other programs: They must be stupid for doing that! Nothing like turning up whatever narrative makes you feel better. Yeah and when Baylor was running all over UNC this week, it was all Papuchis' fault, even when Paps isn't the DC at UNC. I think most NU fans would have loved to have the record of UNC this season, and they did it with 2 former Bo assistants on their defensive staff. No way Chizic thought Baylor would run. They game planned to stop the pass and were completely gassed chasing the RB's...... Goes to show how important depth and rotation is to be successful. If Baylor can remotely find a defense, they would be next to impossible to beat. Briles has done a great job there for sure. Why would Chizek expect Baylor to pass? Baylor was down to their 3rd string QB.

I didn't know we beat Northwestern.....Now we can say that NU went 4-1 this year under Riley!! Only the games after Purdue really mattered and NU gets to claim a win over NW.

I didn't know we beat Northwestern.....Now we can say that NU went 4-1 this year under Riley!! Only the games after Purdue really mattered and NU gets to claim a win over NW.