The cupboard isn't bare

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

I can't wait for football season to start. I always enjoy reading this guys articles.

 

The Cupboard Isn't Bare

Nebraska fans need to quit waiting for 'talent' when it's already there

by Samuel McKewon

 

June 21, 2009

 

There is, among some Husker fans, this presumption in the post-Bill Callahan era of Nebraska football that rebuilding should take time. That the volcanic ash spewed forth in that one awful 2007 season leveled the entire forest.

 

With full admission, the media presented it as such, especially when juxtaposing the fallen regime with that of the House of Osborne, Dr. Tom riding home from an unsuccessful crusade in gubernatorial race, as if Richard the Wisehearted, to restore civility with a gentleman’s smile.

 

There is great truth in that, but understand, in a player’s mind, it’s merely a passage of time. Most of them were not marooned or left gasping for air, like some victim of a recent, massive Ponzi scheme. Most of them just, well, took to the new coaching staff under Bo Pelini, took well to it, and dramatically improved in 2008 after stinking up the joint against Oklahoma and Missouri.

 

You know already know that. Most fans do. Here’s where the presumption comes in: Nebraska overachieved in 2008, emerging triumphantly from raw clay to grind out magical victories. It is a good story, and it fits with Bo Pelini’s all-heart, all-sweat profile.

 

But these weren’t a bunch of guys Football Forgot. And they weren’t no-names. Remember that. We’ll get back to it in a minute.

 

What brings us to the conversation was a chat piece on ESPN recently, in which fine writer Tim Griffin answered a question from a Nebraska fan regarding whether NU would be competing for a BCS or national title game within four years.

 

The essential summary: “But in order to get into that BCS discussion, he's going to have to significantly improve the Cornhuskers' recruiting. He needs to start attracting a bunch of athletic difference makers that will be needed to enable the Cornhuskers to compete with Texas and Oklahoma for the Big 12 title.”

 

No arguing that Pelini needs to keep recruiting talent. Bully there. The 2010 recruiting class seems off to a fine start on offense. Verdict still out on defense.

 

But the difference makers?

 

They’re already here. Thank the volcano.

 

Yep, no backsliding on this. We’ll remain vigilant because we think it’s fair to assessing Pelini’s coaching: NU has plenty – read: loads – of talent. The difference-making athletes are over at North Stadium as we speak, conditioning.

 

Before Pelini’s arrival, the talent was there. It just didn’t correct its mistakes in practice as they happened, but later in a film room. Well, that’s a dumb way to coach college kids. Callahan preferred a practice regimen at warp speed with the precision of those drummers at the Beijing Olympics. He glossed over errors, got shown up on national TV by Southern California, showed up his own players in film study the next day, kicked their collective ass for a week in practice, and lost them by the end of the Ball State game. Or maybe the players lost themselves.

 

Anyway, the effort was in question. The technique was in question. The learning curve was in question.

 

But the skill? The athleticism? It was there. It remains there. Thought it then. Think it now.

 

It goes without saying in Ndamukong Suh’s case, but Zac Lee didn’t fall off a meat wagon, either. He’s the son of a NFL QB, as fast as some running backs and toting a 70-yard arm. That’s one hell of a toolkit. Roy Helu had offers from Oregon and California, both of whom turn out better running backs than USC. Quentin Castille has worked himself into a impressive big back. Prince Amukamara is a laundry list of performance marks. Alex Henery is one of the nation’s best kickers. Keith Williams is an All-Big 12 caliber player. So is Eric Hagg. So is Jacob Hickman. Mike McNeill is the league’s second best tight end. For an inexperienced sophomore suddenly thrust into playing time, Pierre Allen held up surprisingly well last year. And there are five or six players in Pelini’s 2008 class bursting at the seams to heavily contribute in 2009.

 

How many difference makers does Nebraska need?

 

Do they stack up to Texas and Oklahoma? Well, UT and OU had better coaching for all those Callahan years, didn’t they? Pelini can personally vouch for the Sooners’ brain trust, and the Longhorns’ staff is underrated.

 

Do they have more talent? Sure. Some more talent. But enough of this wailing over Travis Lewis, a player who committed to OU instead of NU and is held up, by some, as the poster child of the players Nebraska needs but doesn’t have. Lewis is a good player. He’s not the Rosetta Stone to a national title.

 

The talent gap is not a gulf that, say, home field advantage couldn’t cover. In 2005 and 2006, home field darn near covered it in close losses to the Sooners and Longhorns, and Nebraska has more developed talent now than it did then. And NU hosts Oklahoma in 2009 and Texas in 2010.

 

Pelini’s been consistent on this matter, too. He wants to win them all, and hasn’t settled for something short of it. He’s said more than once that, upon his arrival, there was more material to work with than he originally thought there would be. It hadn’t been coached worth a nickel on defense, but the raw playmakers existed. The defensive line, of which most pundits were skeptical, turned in a monster season. And it wasn’t just because they were tough guys.

 

Thus, the simplest answer to the BCS question is with another question: Why not now?

 

Settling for some special day when Nebraska evens the talent battle is like wishing on the same star that burned out right after Callahan announced his 2005 class.

 

It’s not a video game. It’s football.

 

As for that national title? If 2010 doesn’t look sexy to you yet, Husker fans, well, get on the darkhorse anyway.

 

It’s OK to have expectations, y’know. It’s how Nebraska football got anywhere in the first place.

 

[JGS30]

IMO, the writer needs to spend less time worrying about how NU stacks up against Texas and OU and focus more on how they stack up in the North. If you can't win the North, then who cares how you stack up with them.

[junior4949]

We once played for a NC without winning the North.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

IMO, the writer needs to spend less time worrying about how NU stacks up against Texas and OU and focus more on how they stack up in the North. If you can't win the North, then who cares how you stack up with them.

Right now, the other 10 teams in the Big 12 are being compared against OU and UT and until another team starts to challenge OU and/or UT for the Big 12, the Sooners and 'Horns will be used as the measuring stick. It's unfortunate, but true IMO.

[JGS30]

We once played for a NC without winning the North.

 

LOL-that's right! I forgot about that. That's not likely to ever happen again...but that's funny. That was against the Canes! LOL. What a mess that was. The BCS should of just folded the tents after that season. What a screwed up system.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

That was a fiasco.

[junior4949]

Actually, I don't think it can happen again. Isn't it the OU/NU rule that you have to win your conference in order to play for a NC now? In any event, NU has way worse bowl game losses than the one in 2001. The BCS has and probably will always be a screwed up system.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Yeah what was the deal with OU a couple of years ago? Didn't they lose the Big 12 Championship and go on to play in the MNC??

[junior4949]

They got their a$$es handed to them in the Big 12 Championship game by KState, but they still managed to get into the NC game and got it handed to them again.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

Thaaaaaat's right. That happened two short years later after NU snuck into the MNC. But at least OU WENT to the B12 game as opposed to NU who of course didn't

[junior4949]

I think that is why it's most notably known as the OU rule, but I think NU's performance may have added a little to it as well.

[shyndy]

I think that is why it's most notably known as the OU rule, but I think NU's performance may have added a little to it as well.

 

also i think they altered the formula. the main reason we were still ranked #2 is because the win over then number 1 oklahoma that year gave us a full point in the quality win column, which essentially negated our loss entirely. If i remember correctly, anyway.

[HuskerfaninOkieland]

There were some other factors involved as well. I think after our loss to CU, we dropped to number 5 or 6?? But with another weekend of games left plus the Championship games, all the teams ranked ahead of us lost which pretty much sealed our fate that year.