Big 12 media poll released

[JGS30]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

[shyndy]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

Just another reason why they shouldn't do preseason picks like this. Being picked to win doesn't do anything except set you up for disappointment.

[HuskerJen]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

What about your defense?

 

Total Defense:

 

Kansas...89th in total defense...396.69 yards per game.

 

Missouri's...98th in total defense...411.50 yards per game.

 

Scoring Defense:

 

Kansas...28.85 points per game.

 

Missouri...27.21...points per game.

 

Seems to me that KU's defense was just as pathetic last year.

 

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening.

Well...

 

Look who else there is to pick from...

[walksalone]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

What about your defense?

 

Total Defense:

 

Kansas...89th in total defense...396.69 yards per game.

 

Missouri's...98th in total defense...411.50 yards per game.

 

Scoring Defense:

 

Kansas...28.85 points per game.

 

Missouri...27.21...points per game.

 

Seems to me that KU's defense was just as pathetic last year.

 

 

As i was reading more into the post, she stole my thunder...

 

I think OSU could give everyone in the south a hell of a good scare. They're flying just enough under the radar.

[fro daddy]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

What about your defense?

 

Total Defense:

 

Kansas...89th in total defense...396.69 yards per game.

 

Missouri's...98th in total defense...411.50 yards per game.

 

Scoring Defense:

 

Kansas...28.85 points per game.

 

Missouri...27.21...points per game.

 

Seems to me that KU's defense was just as pathetic last year.

 

 

Did Jen just simi stick up for me... I think im in love

 

Thats KU fans logic for you though. They lost players from a team that almost went 6-6 and they talk smack on others. OUR BACKUPS!!!!????

 

OH MY GOD!! What are we going to do?! We are lost forever....OH...Wait...We have more talented players than KU....so one would believe that our backups might be pretty good too.... and whats that you say... over the past 3 seasons 23 of 24 players who both KU and MU have offered choose MU...well that would mean we have the better players...right?!...maybe....

 

maybe you should look at the stats again. Look at the yrds per play. then look at the total plays faced. Mu gave up about 15 more yrss a game then KU did. BUt mu faced about 12 more plays a game. We will have a different D approach and face much few playes because i doubt this offenses with have nearly the number scoring drives under 2-3 mins like last years did.

 

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see MU's D ranks jump up quite a bit. Ku on the other hand has so much confidence in their D that they are switching schemes during fall ball. moving to a 4-2-5 because of the lack of LB talent. I doubt they are any better than last years D.

 

Who wins the North this year, I have no clue but I know this. For every finger you (ku/NE/MU) point, you will have some back at you...

 

Anyway back to love for Jen...

[caveman99]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

What about your defense?

 

Total Defense:

 

Kansas...89th in total defense...396.69 yards per game.

 

Missouri's...98th in total defense...411.50 yards per game.

 

Scoring Defense:

 

Kansas...28.85 points per game.

 

Missouri...27.21...points per game.

 

Seems to me that KU's defense was just as pathetic last year.

 

 

As i was reading more into the post, she stole my thunder...

 

I think OSU could give everyone in the south a hell of a good scare. They're flying just enough under the radar.

Not for nothing lady and gents, but NU's scoring D wasn't that great last year either. True NU was much better in total D, but NU was 80th in the nation in scoring defense at 28.54 points/game. Looking at average points per game allowed for similar opponents for each team, MU was the best and KU was better than NU.

 

MU vs. KU = 29.8 vs. 32.2

MU vs. NU = 28.5 vs. 30.5

KU vs. NU = 35.5 vs. 36.2

 

I know a lot of us NU fans want to point to the last half of the season as the improvement of the Blackshirts, and yes they did improve but it didn't show up statistically because of the soft non-conference schedule. If you don't include the Big XII Title Game to make the comparison equal, MU was the best Defense of the 3 over the last half of the regular season, 6 games, and the bowl game as well as the last 3 regular season games and the bowl game. NU was the 2nd best in that stretch and KU was the worst. If you add in the Big XII Title game to MU's total, MU was 2nd best and NU was the best.

 

Team / Last 6 + Bowl / Last 3 + Bowl / Last 6 + Bowl + Big XII / Last 3 + Bowl + Big XII

MU / 26.9 / 26.0 / 31.3 / 33.2

NU / 29.1 / 28.8 / -- / --

KU / 38.1 / 34.5 / -- / --

[NUance]

I'm happy to see KU picked second in the North. I'd rather be there than picked to win it. Nebraska now carries the burden of the team to beat in the North. I'm good with that.

 

Now Missouri at 3? I can't see that happening. Not after losing the players they did. I see them at 4th or even 5th in the North. Their defense was pathetic last year......and they lost MOST of their defense....now enter in the guys that were backing them up!!

 

Missouri could end up being the train wreck of the North.

 

What about your defense?

 

Total Defense:

 

Kansas...89th in total defense...396.69 yards per game.

 

Missouri's...98th in total defense...411.50 yards per game.

 

Scoring Defense:

 

Kansas...28.85 points per game.

 

Missouri...27.21...points per game.

 

Seems to me that KU's defense was just as pathetic last year.

 

 

As i was reading more into the post, she stole my thunder...

 

I think OSU could give everyone in the south a hell of a good scare. They're flying just enough under the radar.

Not for nothing lady and gents, but NU's scoring D wasn't that great last year either. True NU was much better in total D, but NU was 80th in the nation in scoring defense at 28.54 points/game. Looking at average points per game allowed for similar opponents for each team, MU was the best and KU was better than NU.

 

MU vs. KU = 29.8 vs. 32.2

MU vs. NU = 28.5 vs. 30.5

KU vs. NU = 35.5 vs. 36.2

 

I know a lot of us NU fans want to point to the last half of the season as the improvement of the Blackshirts, and yes they did improve but it didn't show up statistically because of the soft non-conference schedule. If you don't include the Big XII Title Game to make the comparison equal, MU was the best Defense of the 3 over the last half of the regular season, 6 games, and the bowl game as well as the last 3 regular season games and the bowl game. NU was the 2nd best in that stretch and KU was the worst. If you add in the Big XII Title game to MU's total, MU was 2nd best and NU was the best.

 

Team / Last 6 + Bowl / Last 3 + Bowl / Last 6 + Bowl + Big XII / Last 3 + Bowl + Big XII

MU / 26.9 / 26.0 / 31.3 / 33.2

NU / 29.1 / 28.8 / -- / --

KU / 38.1 / 34.5 / -- / --

 

True, Mizzou may have had a slightly better D than us last year. But all B12 North defenses stunk last year.

 

2009 Scoring D, Nat’l rank:

 

Mizzou #69

Nebr #80

Kansas #82

Colo #86

Iowa St #110

Kansas St #110

ncaa stats

 

I was excited about the Blackshirts last year because we made considerable improvements over the previous season.

 

We won’t be anywhere close to where we want to be until we have a solid top 20 defense. Maybe top 10. At least we are heading in the right direction.

[fro daddy]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

[Igetbored216]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

 

There were definitely alot of secondary break downs for NU last year, which led to ALOT of quick points being scored. However, we also didn't have much depth there either. I mean, we were using walk-ons in order to preserve some redshirt players. I think we did good with what we had. Looking at the roster now, I see much more depth and much more athletic potential.

 

Let's see if it will translate to the field.

[NUance]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

Yeah, our time of possession really did help us out last year on D. Anyone know what our TOP was back in ’07? (How much did we really improve if you factor in TOP?)

 

We won’t likely improve much on TOP this year, as compared to last. It makes me wonder how much improvement we will see from the Blackshirts.

[caveman99]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

Yeah that is true. To me I think KU will still struggle on Defense. They were the worst in the 2nd part of the year, which is the conference part, and I don't think they look much better this year. They have a couple of nice pieces on the D-Line this year and experience in the secondary, but besides Stuckey I am not sure how good that experience is or how much it can improve. KU fans have to hope they improve over last year and by a wide margin.

 

It will be interesting to see which young D, NU or MU, will improve the most this year. MU has 12 Fr. or So. in the current 2-Deep and only 4 returning Starters. NU has anywhere from 11-13 Fr. or So. in the 2-Deep depending on how the Fall shakes out and 6 returning starters (7 if you count Barry Turner as the returning starter at DE, which frankly I would). All but 1 of the returning starters, Blake Lawrence at WILL, are on the D-Line or in the Secondary. Since the D-Line was very good for NU last year that part bodes well, but in the secondary, much like for KU, we need to see what the experience brings as far as improvement this year. I would give NU a big edge in coaching ability over KU to make improvement happen in the back 4 so I am confident in that group. MU has only 1 returning starter on the D-Line, which sets the tone for the D, and only 1 in the back 4, but Gettis is pretty good. LB will the strength position this year for MU, but if the D-Line doesn't mature quickly, the LB's will have a tough time making plays. All of this seems to give the slight edge to NU experience-wise going into the season, which you would think would make NU slightly better prepared to take another step forward but we shall see. This is why this year will be really really fun in the North Division!

[caveman99]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

Yeah, our time of possession really did help us out last year on D. Anyone know what our TOP was back in ’07? (How much did we really improve if you factor in TOP?)

 

We won’t likely improve much on TOP this year, as compared to last. It makes me wonder how much improvement we will see from the Blackshirts.

I actually had this all figured out on another board, let me see if I can find it.

[fro daddy]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

 

There were definitely alot of secondary break downs for NU last year, which led to ALOT of quick points being scored. However, we also didn't have much depth there either. I mean, we were using walk-ons in order to preserve some redshirt players. I think we did good with what we had. Looking at the roster now, I see much more depth and much more athletic potential.

 

Let's see if it will translate to the field.

 

It is a wait and see for alot of things this season. And I want to clarify that I think NE will better on D this year, but I just dont know that it will translate statistically that way.

 

I think there will be more talent on the field, but remember they are RS freshman. There will still be mistakes. Mu is very similar in the Defensive backfield. They had some pretty talented guys that redshirted. It is a wait and see for this new approach and D style will be better off , and if these new kids can handle it

[fro daddy]

Nice post caveman,

 

I will add something I have been saying for a while. The total yrds for each team is greatly effected by the number of plays faced.

 

The question for this year is will NE's D be able to improve the way some believe it will when the offensive players are so new. Last year NE had one of the best T.O.P.'s in the country. They drug out and killed the clock thus limiting the number of plays the D faced.

On the oppisite end was MU, their D faced more plays than almost every team in the country due to the fact that the Offense scored so quickly so often. Will Mu's new offensieve players have longer drives. perhaps even doubling the average scoring drive lenght from last year. If that happens then the number of plays MU faced on D would fall drastically.

 

Truth is Mu struggled at times last year on D. Had some major break downs in the secondary and it effected them. But overall, they were not near as bad as people make them out to be.

 

and Nuance has a nice point also...

 

Being the best of the worst still isnt that great.

Yeah that is true. To me I think KU will still struggle on Defense. They were the worst in the 2nd part of the year, which is the conference part, and I don't think they look much better this year. They have a couple of nice pieces on the D-Line this year and experience in the secondary, but besides Stuckey I am not sure how good that experience is or how much it can improve. KU fans have to hope they improve over last year and by a wide margin.

 

It will be interesting to see which young D, NU or MU, will improve the most this year. MU has 12 Fr. or So. in the current 2-Deep and only 4 returning Starters. NU has anywhere from 11-13 Fr. or So. in the 2-Deep depending on how the Fall shakes out and 6 returning starters (7 if you count Barry Turner as the returning starter at DE, which frankly I would). All but 1 of the returning starters, Blake Lawrence at WILL, are on the D-Line or in the Secondary. Since the D-Line was very good for NU last year that part bodes well, but in the secondary, much like for KU, we need to see what the experience brings as far as improvement this year. I would give NU a big edge in coaching ability over KU to make improvement happen in the back 4 so I am confident in that group. MU has only 1 returning starter on the D-Line, which sets the tone for the D, and only 1 in the back 4, but Gettis is pretty good. LB will the strength position this year for MU, but if the D-Line doesn't mature quickly, the LB's will have a tough time making plays. All of this seems to give the slight edge to NU experience-wise going into the season, which you would think would make NU slightly better prepared to take another step forward but we shall see. This is why this year will be really really fun in the North Division!

 

All very true. I think on Mu's D line it comes down to the second DT position. Both Coulter and J. Smith both getting quite a few snaps in the rotation last year. Aldon Smith is RS Freshman and had he not been injured in fall ball he would have been infront of j. smith and coulter. I think we will have a strong pass rush from the ends with those guys and Baston can hold his own (although he is not as good as Williams or Hood were). But that 4th postion is a big question mark at this point. Too bad Sheldon Richardson has to go to Juco...that would have really helped