My Burning Thoughts

[SoCalhusker88]

excellent stuff here...good post

 

only thing i disagree with is pelini...I love his fire as long as he doesn't it a kid or official scream all you want.....I feel like he takes upon him all the stress experienced by huskernation and unleashes it on the officials when we can't

[nhuskers5]

This is literally the perfect description of the game

[HuskerNMO]

I wanna see Green at TE or WR next year if we have decent depth behind martinez. I still think with his athleticism, you try to get him on the field somehow, and he could be a nice big target for Martinez. Imagine a guy with Green's size running go routes and getting into a jump ball contest with a 5'11" cornerback.

 

Kerry Meier and Ryan Tannehill could be great examples for Cody.

[bshirt]

EZ-E.....are you serious about #6??

 

The "results" difference between the offense and defense has been MASSIVE the last couple of years. The defensive side amoung the best in the nation....the offensive side amoung the worst.

 

I don't know if i'd call the difference massive, a decent difference, sure, massive? No

 

Scoring Offense- 40th average

2010- 28th

2009- 75th

2008- 17th

 

Scoring Defense- 28th average

2010- 3rd

2009- 1st

2008- 80th

 

I was referring to this and last year.

 

Total offense

 

2010 - 32

2009 - 99

 

Total defense

 

2010 - 9

2009 - 7

 

Given the utter free fall our offense is in currently and has been steadily getting worse since the injury to Tmart (Iowa St, Kansas & TAM) it would not be surprising in the least to see the current "respectable" 32nd in Total Offense fall a long ways by season end.

 

Tmart is 99% of the offensive improvement from last year and with him hurt.....it's 2009 once again.

 

Exactly that, the injury to Martinez. Before Martinez was injured we averaged 38 points and 459 yards of offense. The 3 halfs of football we'd played prior to Martinez saw us score 31, 20 and 24 points, we had Martinez throw for 323 yards and 5 TD's and run for 112 against OSU, Helu ripped off 307 yards against Mizzou.

 

Shawn Watson and this team were setting records for offensive output by individuals at a school with a great history on the offensive side of the ball. Then Martinez got hurt, Bo told Watson to strip down the offense again and here we are.

 

Watson is doing what Bo tells him to do, Bo doesn't have much faith in Cody, despite Watson having plenty. If you don't think we're in vanilla mode again, I don't know what to tell you.

 

If you don't think we're in the inept mode "again", I don't know what to tell you.

 

I consider vanilla and inept to go hand in hand. Bo knows that we can win a lot of games between our defense and Alex Henery.

 

And even with the best defense & FG kicker in the nation still lose four games. Sorry, while you have no problem with wasting great defenses annually Bo does. Bo knows Alex won't be here next year too. A new OC is what we'll have.

[husker_99]

Teams that lose QBs and seem to still move the ball

 

Texas AM

How did Washington and Zona do when their QBs went down? i have no idea off the top of my head.

 

Northwestern, they just scored liek 35 points with their backup.

 

Not sure of any others and I dont even know now how those teams did. I was just tossing out some. Didnt the Ducks lose a QB for a game this year?

 

We are playing with our backup's backup.

 

 

While Green may be a 3rd string quarterback he is far from it. What i mean is Green started games last year when Lee wasn't hurt. It's not like he has never played in a game before the Iowa St game. From a traditional sense he is not a 3rd string quarterback at all. 3rd string qb's never take a snap in a game if the team even has one.

[zoogs]

Bo has not had to deal with an analagous situation to losing our top 2 QBs.

HAHAHAHAHA! Really? So in a defense that is built like an offense (in that it has ONE linebacker that makes ALL the calls), Bo losing his top 2 linebackers is not like losing the top 2 qbs??? Give me a break! Bo did what a good coordinator does. He worked his ass off to teach the scheme to the guy, really coached him up, built his game plan around what his guys could do that week and what they couldn't do. That is what a good coordinator does.

 

Meh. Defense is really not built like the offense at all. Offense revolves around the QB. Sure the LB makes the calls, and it hurts, but it's not nearly the same. Any NFL defense, there's a guy that makes the calls, with a green sticker on the back of his helmet. Same thing: can't even try to compare the importance of that guy to the QB. He is important, but not the same.

 

And in our case, Lavonte was really our best LB anyway, just needed to be brought along.

 

Defense is just plain different than offense. We plan to play the season with 2 LBs. We have a ton of them on the roster, but we thin out the depth at the top, so OK. We'll just run a lot more 1 LB sets.

 

We have three actually viable guys at QB. I have NO idea why everyone thought our QB depth was strong. There was Zac, who most people and maybe Bo don't believe in anyway, and there's Taylor, a complete project RFr that has done a pretty good job, and Green, a 2nd-year project whom only star-gazers expected anything better out of. Nothing proven outside of Zac, and even Zac hadn't proven much. Behind that, you got your walk-on and your converted LB. When one of those #4/#5 guys now taking #2 reps, that should tell you the kind of trouble we are in at QB.

 

I suppose in '08, we had some depth issues at LB too. But that's a position where we were able to take a RB there and make it work, and throw in some freshmen walk-ons like Matt Holt and Matt May, and get some quality enough games out of them. You really think QB is an analagous position?

 

While Green may be a 3rd string quarterback he is far from it. What i mean is Green started games last year when Lee wasn't hurt. It's not like he has never played in a game before the Iowa St game. From a traditional sense he is not a 3rd string quarterback at all. 3rd string qb's never take a snap in a game if the team even has one.

 

Green's situation is really just FUBAR. If he comes in here with 3 stars or 2 stars it is a completely different view of him, and consequently, of his QB coach.

 

Complete project at QB, projected to be a WR/TE in college, but we tried to make him a QB through and through. Needed him to burn his redshirt after Witt transferred and Spano went down again, or else he would have been our fourth QB, redshirting, last year, instead of next-in-line. And of course, he was kept off the field for most of the year even with our starter ailing with a throwing arm injury that was limiting him severely.

 

That lack of redshirt year threw back Cody's development. I'm honestly baffled as to why he didn't redshirt this year, because he needed it and he still needs it. He's the kind of player that always was going to take a while to develop and hasn't been able to just stop, breathe, and work on that. If what you're trying to say is Cody isn't a typical 3rd string QB, you might be right, because typical 3rd string QBs on most teams are probably quarterbacks and not still-developing athletes. If you mean he is better than the typical third string, I think that's mistaken. Even this year, he would be #4 with a healthy Spano, IMO. OFC, Spano's career is ruined.

[teachercd]

Zoogies, your sig line from that ultimate virgin HTO over the HI boards is so bad but I can't stop laughing at it! Please dont tell me you like that guys posts!

[NUance]

EZ, Agreement on all points. +1 to you, sir.

[Pedro Guerrero]

For the folks that keep saying Bo made adjustments on Defense due to injury because that is what good coordinators do, HE IS NOT A COORDINATOR, HE IS THE HEAD COACH! He is responsible for the WHOLE TEAM not just one side of the ball. The offensive struggles are his fault as well. If he doesn’t like something or thinks someone needs to sit he has the power to changes things. If he doesn’t use that power then maybe he isn’t cut out to be a Head Coach and he would be better off just being a Defensive Coordinator

[HuskerNMO]

Teams that lose QBs and seem to still move the ball

 

Texas AM

How did Washington and Zona do when their QBs went down? i have no idea off the top of my head.

 

Northwestern, they just scored liek 35 points with their backup.

 

Not sure of any others and I dont even know now how those teams did. I was just tossing out some. Didnt the Ducks lose a QB for a game this year?

 

We are playing with our backup's backup.

 

 

While Green may be a 3rd string quarterback he is far from it. What i mean is Green started games last year when Lee wasn't hurt. It's not like he has never played in a game before the Iowa St game. From a traditional sense he is not a 3rd string quarterback at all. 3rd string qb's never take a snap in a game if the team even has one.

 

Zac was hurt when Cody started, he was trying to play through it, but obviously, it didn't work well.

[irafreak]

I have tried to make it a rule for myself that I wait 24 hours to post after a game like this one. None of this is a rant, it is all my honest opinion.

 

In no particular order of importance:

 

1) The Big Twelve Conference, The University of Texas A&M, Dan Beebe, Mike Sherman, and the officiating crew should all be embarassed about what happened on Saturday night. That was a disgrace and anyone with eyes can see what happened on that football field that night. You cannot tell me that Texas A&M did not hold a single time; and that is just one example.

 

2) Bo Pelini, we all knew that this was typical of Bo Pelini when Osborne hired him. I do not agree with everything that happened, but I do not disagree with it either. I am actually quite indifferent. If we had won the game would our fanbase be divided?

 

3) Ben Cotton, I would not have only kicked at that kid, I would have made damn sure that I hit him. We will see what Dan Beebe and the Big 12 decide to do about this incident because a precident was set last year with the Spikes kid from Florida with the eye gouging incident. There has to be some sort of consequence for committing a crime that is punishable by law on the football field. We will see though.

 

4) Courtney Osborne, nothing to hang your head about young man. There was nothing on that particular play that called for a roughing the passer penalty.

 

5) The officiating crew, if this were a real conference you would all be suspended indefinatly. You just eased any doubts that I had about us moving to the Big 10. Thank you.

 

6) The Fire-Watson camp, I am done with all of you. We hold Watson to a much more higher standard than Bo and Carl. When we play poorly, it is all his fault. When we play well, it is no thanks to him. When we gave up 30 to ISU Carl was not called out as much as Watson. When Okie State scored 41 on us Carl Pelini was not held accountable. But when arguably the most important person on our offense gets hurt and can't perform to full potential it is Watson's fault. How fair is that? If you are going to hold Watson to a high standard you have to hold Bo and Carl to the same standard. But I guess that they are untouchable.

 

Ironic that you should use a clip from the most high powered OFFENSE in the country...

[irafreak]

+1. I agree with the majority of your post, especially #2. Bo often rides the officials like that and always wears his emotions on his sleeve. It tends to get overlooked when we win.

 

However, I disagree with #3. Far worse occurs underneath those piles. This incident just happened to be caught on camera. I'm curious to see what comes of it. I wouldn't be surprised if nothing happens.

Really? FAR worse? So what guys pull knifes out and slice off fingers? Give me a break? I rank my nuts right up there with my eyes and that's about it for objects that could be attacked by hand under a pile.

[irafreak]

EZ-E.....are you serious about #6??

 

The "results" difference between the offense and defense has been MASSIVE the last couple of years. The defensive side amoung the best in the nation....the offensive side amoung the worst.

 

I will ask you the same question bshirt, Was 2009 ALL Watson's fault? Is TMart getting hurt his fault too? You would agree that the improvement between our offense in 2009 and this year with TMart were night and day? Right?

 

Of course not. But EZ-E......he's the "OC". You know, the guy who is responsible for results. The results stunk to high heaven last year and has the year several times too. My God, EZ-E....

 

Offensive production the last two years.

 

 

2009

 

VT = zero TDs

TT = one garbage TD

Iowa St = one TD

OU = one TD (1 yd dr due to pick)

Texas = zero TDs

 

2010 (so far)

 

SDSU = two Tds

Texas = zero Tds

Kansas = two Tds

TAM = zero Tds

 

....you're seriously defending that? If so, we can totally forget about ever being in the NC hunt and if Bo's defense ever does anything less than fantastic we're back to the Callahan years.

 

This pretty much sums it up.

 

It is interesting the type of backlash that I have created by simply saying that we do not hold Bo and Carl to the same standard as we hold Watson to.

 

Two of the games that you mentioned above we won Bshirt; the Texas game. Was that really Watson's fault? I seem to remember several key drops. That would be like blaming Carl Pelini for Thenarse missing tackles.

 

Kansas- it was very clear we had zero interest in running up the score on Turner Gill.

TAM- I am not going to place blame solely on Watson where it seems a lot of you have.

 

Watson can never seem to win here with the fans. He never will. It will always be all his fault.

 

Bshirt- I can easily name games that our defense was less than stellar in and not a single person blamed Pelini. Not one.

Backlash? You created? The arguments against watson have been going on for years. You're just bringing it up again. You can't deny the offense plays horribly far too often. Six points against A&M? Really! SIX! MY GOD even STEPHEN F AUSTIN SCORED 7 AGAINST A&M! Kansas scored 10 points against A&M!

[Lonestar_Husker]

EZ-E.....are you serious about #6??

 

The "results" difference between the offense and defense has been MASSIVE the last couple of years. The defensive side amoung the best in the nation....the offensive side amoung the worst.

 

I don't know if i'd call the difference massive, a decent difference, sure, massive? No

 

Scoring Offense- 40th average

2010- 28th

2009- 75th

2008- 17th

 

Scoring Defense- 28th average

2010- 3rd

2009- 1st

2008- 80th

 

I was referring to this and last year.

 

Total offense

 

2010 - 32

2009 - 99

 

Total defense

 

2010 - 9

2009 - 7

 

Given the utter free fall our offense is in currently and has been steadily getting worse since the injury to Tmart (Iowa St, Kansas & TAM) it would not be surprising in the least to see the current "respectable" 32nd in Total Offense fall a long ways by season end.

 

Tmart is 99% of the offensive improvement from last year and with him hurt.....it's 2009 once again.

 

Exactly that, the injury to Martinez. Before Martinez was injured we averaged 38 points and 459 yards of offense. The 3 halfs of football we'd played prior to Martinez saw us score 31, 20 and 24 points, we had Martinez throw for 323 yards and 5 TD's and run for 112 against OSU, Helu ripped off 307 yards against Mizzou.

 

Shawn Watson and this team were setting records for offensive output by individuals at a school with a great history on the offensive side of the ball. Then Martinez got hurt, Bo told Watson to strip down the offense again and here we are.

 

Watson is doing what Bo tells him to do, Bo doesn't have much faith in Cody, despite Watson having plenty. If you don't think we're in vanilla mode again, I don't know what to tell you.

 

 

This represents my thinking.

 

I think with better options at QB next year, we should give Watson another year. With the type of QB he wants, he is effective, without the type of QB he wants, he struggles. Cody just doesn't seem to be panning out. Zac is apparantly out, so there is no other option. Next year there will most likely be other players capable of executing the plays at a cosistently high level. The gap between the starter and the backups next year will be less. It's possible that Carnes or even Jamal Turner or Bubba Starling will be competing to start with Taylor Martinez next year. If Bo's mantra is true, then every position is an open competition.

 

Also, in the game vs aTm, there were plays to be made. Cody overthrows Niles in the 1st quarter. Niles was streaking by the safety and Cody didn't put enough air on the ball. He needed to lay it up there and let Niles go get it. Taylors throw to Reed on the second interception was poor. It wasn't a hard throw, I would think his ankle might compromise accuracy. No defensive help inside, easy 6 points, erased. 3 points erased by the pick. It's hard to calculate the domino effect of these passes. How much would proper execution have benifitted the run?

 

There were plays to made against Texas, too. I needn't go into that.

 

We need to deep at the QB position due to the type of offense we seem to be heading to. Who ever is playing that position will be taking hits. Especially in the Big 10. He will either have to be durable or we will need to have depth at that position. I think we lack quality depth at the QB position, this year. Zac is apparantly hurt and Cody seems to have a deer in the headlights thing going on. Next year and for the next few years we could have the depth we need. We will have 4 players that potentially could be as effective as Taylor at running this offense. We will see with Starling. I hope Cody stays and takes advantage of his education. I like him as a person. I think he works better as 3rd or 4th string QB than he does at 2nd string QB. Or even TE if he can catch.

 

[holvy83]

I get the sense that some feel that Bo has absolutely nothing to do with the offense... Blame Watson all you want, but Bo is the Head Coach, he is in charge, and I would bet that most of the final decisions including game plans come down to Bo. If not then I would want to know why the hell the Head Coach is not doing anything about the offense? To put the blame all on Watsons' shoulder is dumb