Which Husker is most vital to success?

[HuskerNMO]

I voted Prince. If we lose Zac, it'll be bad, but we could shut down the offense and bring Green along. If we lose Prince, who steps in for him now that Blue is gone? We are depending pretty heavily on our two shutdown corners in the D this year. Does Thorell start at CB or something?

 

I'll get some funny looks, but Mike Caputo.

 

Pretty sure West or Gomes moves back to corner if Prince or Dennard go down.

 

The thing i'm really liking at this point is that we have solid depth at almost every position. Yes, it would suck if Prince or Crick went down, but we have capable replacements.

 

The only position that we do not have somebody that's game tested to step in at, is center. So if Caputo goes down, IMO, it's our biggest loss now that Smith is out.

[307husker]

Bo Pelini

[huzkerbob]

I had to vote for Zac Lee, because NU absolutely MUST have improved QB play if they have any hope at all about making a serious Big12 title run.

 

Didn't we make a serious Big 12 title run last year with below average QB play?

 

There is no doubt that the strength of this team is the defense. IMO, the most valuable player on defense is a dominant defensive tackle, so I will have to go with Crick.

 

I like EZ's pick of Hagg as well, mainly because his versatility has a lot to do with the scheme run by Bo and Carl.

 

A serious one? Seriously lucky maybe....

 

I'm not really concerned with last season, I'm worried about 2011. And anyone who thinks we can dodge that bullet for a second straight year will be sadly mistaken come November.

[HuskersNow]

I voted for Zac. I don't honestly think the other quarterbacks can win us many games this year.

[zoogs]

I voted Prince. If we lose Zac, it'll be bad, but we could shut down the offense and bring Green along. If we lose Prince, who steps in for him now that Blue is gone? We are depending pretty heavily on our two shutdown corners in the D this year. Does Thorell start at CB or something?

 

I'll get some funny looks, but Mike Caputo.

 

Pretty sure West or Gomes moves back to corner if Prince or Dennard go down.

 

The thing i'm really liking at this point is that we have solid depth at almost every position. Yes, it would suck if Prince or Crick went down, but we have capable replacements.

 

The only position that we do not have somebody that's game tested to step in at, is center. So if Caputo goes down, IMO, it's our biggest loss now that Smith is out.

 

Caputo's a good one too. Good point on Gomes/West moving back to corner - although I'd say that's a big drop off at a key position, that also creates more uncertainty at safety at the same time by moving one of the starters over. I think Caputo is rock solid on the OL, but who's to say Pensick won't grow into the role at center and be competent enough as so many others have over the years? It seems that even with the uncertainty, it's a more "step-up"-able position than starting corner. I'll agree that we have capable replacements for Crick though; Steinkuhler-Moore with Randle backing them up and probably Rome's redshirt coming off.

 

I like EZ's naming of Hagg as well. Hagg's a focal point on the defense and his skillset is pretty unique.

[Lil' Red]

I think it's Lee due to the fact that QB play is vital.

[Billyball]

Crick and whoever lines up at the other DT. Crick has to show that he can fight thru double teams that he did not have to face with something approaching SUh's ability. Similarly whoever starts opposite has to be up to the performance of Crick who benefitted from Suh's play last year. If those things don't happen, our vaunted secondary regardless of the schemes will suffer. In conference the QBs will be too good if we don't have pressure at the Los like last year. Suh made playing.DB,LB,DE,or opposite DT much easier. Until conference play, we won't know how these two DTs stack up.

[Husker B]

This one is simple. It's Helu. You see what happened when he was out last year, the offense sputtered. Before he went down, it was going pretty good.

 

The only game he was mostly healthy for after Mizzou was the Holiday Bowl, and our offense was firing on all cylinders. Our offense will not work with Burkhead and a slew of the lower depth chart RBs.

[deedsker15]

This one is simple. It's Helu. You see what happened when he was out last year, the offense sputtered. Before he went down, it was going pretty good.

 

The only game he was mostly healthy for after Mizzou was the Holiday Bowl, and our offense was firing on all cylinders. Our offense will not work with Burkhead and a slew of the lower depth chart RBs.

we need helu like we need an offense in general...both are real important

[Enhance]

I had to vote for Zac Lee, because NU absolutely MUST have improved QB play if they have any hope at all about making a serious Big12 title run.

 

Didn't we make a serious Big 12 title run last year with below average QB play?

 

There is no doubt that the strength of this team is the defense. IMO, the most valuable player on defense is a dominant defensive tackle, so I will have to go with Crick.

 

I like EZ's pick of Hagg as well, mainly because his versatility has a lot to do with the scheme run by Bo and Carl.

I don't know if I would call that a "serious Big 12 title run". We got to the Big 12 title game because of an extremely talented defense going up against rather mediocre competition.

 

Don't get me wrong, I thought our defense was extremely talented and they showcased that well in the Big 12 title game and the Holiday Bowl. But, we also faced a Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma team and a league full of inexperienced QB's for the most part. With the exception of a few games, we played some pretty average offensive talent.

 

This year, I just don't see us being as dominant on defense as we were last year. I think we'll be close, but not as good.

 

Therefore, I think our season hinges on what the quarterback gives us. If we have a season like last year with bad quarterback play and strings of injuries, then I don't think we'll make the Big 12 title even in a league that we should be very good in.

[bshirt]

I had to vote for Zac Lee, because NU absolutely MUST have improved QB play if they have any hope at all about making a serious Big12 title run.

 

 

Yep.....by a thousand country miles.

[huskered17]

I had to vote for Zac Lee, because NU absolutely MUST have improved QB play if they have any hope at all about making a serious Big12 title run.

 

Didn't we make a serious Big 12 title run last year with below average QB play?

 

There is no doubt that the strength of this team is the defense. IMO, the most valuable player on defense is a dominant defensive tackle, so I will have to go with Crick.

 

I like EZ's pick of Hagg as well, mainly because his versatility has a lot to do with the scheme run by Bo and Carl.

 

A serious one? Seriously lucky maybe....

 

I'm not really not concerned with last season, I'm worried about 2011. And anyone who thinks we can dodge that bullet for a second straight year will be sadly mistaken come November.

 

 

 

It could be ugly next year without a proven q/b.

GBR!!!

[GBRsal]

it's not realistic to blame all our offensive problems of last season on zac, as the bulk of the problem was with the offensive line. as you saw in the holiday bowl, burkhead will be the key to the offense. helu needs only 1000 yards to crack the top 4 in career rushing...amazing when you consider the O-lines the top 3 ran behind, and the difference in offensive philosophies. as we all saw against the sun belt teams last year, if zac gets a little time and can keep his cool, he will find a receiver and get him the ball. dropped balls were another big problem last year. the burning questions this year are how much better will the Oline play be? (should be considerably better, but probably still not dominant) and can our recievers haul in catchable balls? (remains to be seen) i'm confident that given a little protection, zac will do a serviceable job running wats' offense. we don't need an all conference qb to win the big12. just a clock controlling offense and balls that hit the receivers between the nipples not getting dropped will do the trick.

[trouble]

I had to vote for Zac Lee, because NU absolutely MUST have improved QB play if they have any hope at all about making a serious Big12 title run.

 

 

Yep.....by a thousand country miles.

 

Agreed

[huskers17]

I voted for Lee, but in reality it could be him or Green (or even Martinez)...just so long as we get steady QB play. All the other guys are important too, but without a solid QB performance this year, this team has a ceiling no higher than last year's. I understand we almost won the big 12 without a good QB, but we can't put it all on our defense again.