Illinois - What Did We Learn

[Undone]

46 minutes ago, Husker03 said:

Really do like the kid. Needs to be a taysom hill type guy.  Not THE guy. 

 

Say it again with me now: Most likely, in Rhule's mind Haarberg is the backup QB. So, he's really not "THE guy."

[Husker03]

3 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

Say it again with me now: Most likely, in Rhule's mind Haarberg is the backup QB. So, he's really not "THE guy."

Yep. And we will see that in 13 days when we get Simms back.  For better or for worse. 

[macroboy]

6 hours ago, olddominionhusker said:

I was never sold on the Satt hire and the offense is pretty painful to watch right now but I’m actually going to give him some credit. The fact is we do not have the players to run the offense he wants to run. To his credit I think he is trying to find plays to use the personnel he has now even though that style of football is not his forte. In addition, there have been some nice play calls ruined by bad execution on the players part. I know “execution” is a tired old trope but I also think it’s true in this case. As far as the two minute drill at the end of the half, I have no problem being aggressive there. At some point, if you are going to be in the position to need to move down the field quickly. No issue with trying for points there

 

I'm with you on this. The PTSD in this fan base had people in the game thread going CRAAAZZZYYY right before half time. Torches and pitchforks and nonsense.

 

Scoring to close out a half, and then getting the ball back after half to score again is winning football. It's not his fault HH went colorblind and started slinging the ball like Uncle Rico by his van. I LOVED Rhule coming out and getting on HH after one of those throws.

 

I'm not blown away by Satt but people calling for his head, what exactly would you call? He's trying to run an offense w a high school QB and an Oline that sometimes looks like the keystone cops. His WR's are hurt. His RB's are hurt and fumble. He's probably got 25 plays he can call and 3 of them are false starts and 2 are interceptions.

 

[Husker03]

15 minutes ago, macroboy said:

 

I'm with you on this. The PTSD in this fan base had people in the game thread going CRAAAZZZYYY right before half time. Torches and pitchforks and nonsense.

 

Scoring to close out a half, and then getting the ball back after half to score again is winning football. It's not his fault HH went colorblind and started slinging the ball like Uncle Rico by his van. I LOVED Rhule coming out and getting on HH after one of those throws.

 

I'm not blown away by Satt but people calling for his head, what exactly would you call? He's trying to run an offense w a high school QB and an Oline that sometimes looks like the keystone cops. His WR's are hurt. His RB's are hurt and fumble. He's probably got 25 plays he can call and 3 of them are false starts and 2 are interceptions.

 

Post of the year!

[cheekygeek]

What did we learn? We learned that Tony White continues to make the right personnel moves that allows him to cover for players lost to injury. Regardless

of what state Phalen is from, or whether he is scholarship or walk-on, the dude can ball.

 

But the offense is being absolutely DECIMATED by injuries at RB & WR. While I’m happy the offense did enough to win last night, I fear that anyone who looks at this game objectively and sees an easy path to a bowl game at this point is WILDLY over-reacting to this win. (Just like many wildly over-reacted to the Michigan loss.)

 

I believe that a Best Case Scenario has a six win season ON THE LINE when we play Iowa.

[Undone]

45 minutes ago, cheekygeek said:

I fear that anyone who looks at this game objectively and sees an easy path to a bowl game at this point is WILDLY over-reacting to this win.

 

Haven't really seen anybody saying that, either on this board or anywhere else.

 

46 minutes ago, cheekygeek said:

I believe that a Best Case Scenario has a six win season ON THE LINE when we play Iowa.

 

I think this is accurate.

[Archy1221]

2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

5 hours ago, Archy1221 said:

 

He was the target on 25% of our passes. And he was open on most of those. Don’t know how much you can improve on that

He has 12 receptions on the year.  That’s 2 per game.   And last night 2 of the targets should have been intercepted.   Yes I think they can improve on scheming to get their best receiving weapon the ball more.  

[ladyhawke]

4 hours ago, LennynSquiggy said:

He doesn't throw sidearm every pass attempt so I think it probably is correctable.

I stand corrected. I listened to Adam Carriker’s reaction to the game against Illinois and he said he had watched HH as a freshman and that HH did not always throw that sidearm way so I agree with you that he can be corrected. Do we have a quarterback coach? If a really good quarterback coach could take HH under his wing and teach him not only correct form but also how to increase his accuracy. 

[ladyhawke]

2 hours ago, Husker03 said:

Yep. And we will see that in 13 days when we get Simms back.  For better or for worse. 

I hope not. 

[Husker03]

30 minutes ago, ladyhawke said:

I stand corrected. I listened to Adam Carriker’s reaction to the game against Illinois and he said he had watched HH as a freshman and that HH did not always throw that sidearm way so I agree with you that he can be corrected. Do we have a quarterback coach? If a really good quarterback coach could take HH under his wing and teach him not only correct form but also how to increase his accuracy. 

But why? Like, not to be a punk but he is currently an NCAA Div 1 quarterback. To say, “Let’s get him a quarterback coach to help teach him how to throw correctly and with any degree of accuracy,” is hilarious to me. That’s basic QB skills. Should have them by now. That’s not a thing we “start developing as a Jr in college,” thing. There are thousands of high school quarterbacks that need less than that and will never get a sniff at this level. He’s literally a ground up build at this point and I have NO idea why he’s on a scholly here. He could spend 2 full years just developing reads and field vision and still be lacking. That doesn’t even start to address his innate flawed mechanics which also would take multiple years to correct. 
 

He’s out of time for NU to save him as a QB. He’s a guy we use only because there is nobody else and cutting him in the off-season was not the way Rhule was gonna win the state. He can transfer down a few levels and have loads of fun running around and slinging yard ball for Wayne. 
 

From NU’s perspective, he’s an easy guy to recruit over this off-season and that is the path you take because such fewer resources needed to put into the next guy who already knows how to not throw sidearm and get the ball within 4 yards of his receiver. It’s business and Haarberg leaves you little upside return on investment at this time. 

[huskerfan74]

I learned that I grossly underestimated how atrocious our offense and our OC are. I know we are desperate for wins and we will take them anyway they come but that win was UGLY. We spent almost the entire game in Illinois’s half and had so many drives in the red zone that ended up in goose eggs. Thank God Illinois is bad. 
 

[Wistrom Disciple]

49 minutes ago, Husker03 said:

But why? Like, not to be a punk but he is currently an NCAA Div 1 quarterback. To say, “Let’s get him a quarterback coach to help teach him how to throw correctly and with any degree of accuracy,” is hilarious to me. That’s basic QB skills. Should have them by now. That’s not a thing we “start developing as a Jr in college,” thing. There are thousands of high school quarterbacks that need less than that and will never get a sniff at this level. He’s literally a ground up build at this point and I have NO idea why he’s on a scholly here. He could spend 2 full years just developing reads and field vision and still be lacking. That doesn’t even start to address his innate flawed mechanics which also would take multiple years to correct. 
 

He’s out of time for NU to save him as a QB. He’s a guy we use only because there is nobody else and cutting him in the off-season was not the way Rhule was gonna win the state. He can transfer down a few levels and have loads of fun running around and slinging yard ball for Wayne. 
 

From NU’s perspective, he’s an easy guy to recruit over this off-season and that is the path you take because such fewer resources needed to put into the next guy who already knows how to not throw sidearm and get the ball within 4 yards of his receiver. It’s business and Haarberg leaves you little upside return on investment at this time. 

Haarberg is a decent athlete and can help the team. Am I convinced that his best spot is at QB? Absolutely not. However, we have three scholarship QBs right now with the most experienced of the three working back from an injury. IMO Sims presents the best chance for success later in the year, but I understand the argument against him right now. 

 

While I understand the rush to judgment of the coaches, I think the requests to replace are ill-advised at this stage. Rhule is heavy on development and we're seeing improvements, even in the O-line... as much as some would make you believe otherwise. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. However, had we been told that we would average rushing 200 yards per game (avg. 5 yards per attempt) through the first six games, most would be pumped with those numbers. Add in the fact that we lost Sims, Ervin, & Johnson, the accomplishment becomes a little more impressive. The sky isn't falling, the rest of the schedule has flaws so we're doing alright. Should be a fun rest of the year.

[ndobney]

18 hours ago, DefenderAO said:

 

We're not beating Purdue

Watched them today. I would be shocked if we don’t beat them

[huskerfan74]

2 hours ago, ndobney said:

Watched them today. I would be shocked if we don’t beat them

Not if we play like we did in fourth quarter. It was as if Illinois’ end zone were the pits of hell and our guys were doing their best to avoid it by going backward. 

[ColoradoHusk]

2 minutes ago, huskerfan74 said:

Not if we play like we did in fourth quarter. It was as if Illinois’ end zone were the pits of hell and our guys were doing their best to avoid it by going backward. 

NU had a very poor 4th quarter. Why do fans think that NU will play that same way the rest of the season?  Isn’t it just as possible (or probable) that NU plays like it did for the for 3 quarters?  The negativity in this fan base is the worst.