And now for something completely different...

[walksalone]

Not only that, but I anticipate needing to tack on some muscle mass, while maintaining speed. I believe (although I do not know) that we are, overall, a faster team than most in the Big 10. Ohio State comes to mind immediately as a team as fast, if not faster, than the Huskers and there may be others. Speed will be a major factor moving forward in the Big 10, but you MUST pair that with strength, or teams like Iowa and Wiscy will simply bowl you over.

 

The great news is that we have fantastic depth on the D Line, where run-stopping begins. My prediction for our two-deep goes like this:

 

Meredith - Steinkuhler - Crick - Ankrah

 

Ankrah - Moore - Randle - Martin

 

After that, we have yet another string of guys:

 

Tobi Okuyemi, Walker Ashburn and Jake Cotton on the D Line, and Chase Rome may quite possible supplant one of the guys in my two-deep up there. The coaches are very high on him. I'm spacing on our D Line commits coming in right now, but I expect every single 2011 signee to redshirt. It'd be nearly impossible for anyone coming in as a true freshman to fight their way into a two-deep spot with these guys ahead of them.

 

I guess that's one of the things that worries me. Wisconsin has some hogs on their O line. I was watching the Rose Bowl, and just thinking to myself, damn they're big. But with that being said our D isn't unlike TCU's so we may be ok.

[kchusker_chris]

David's pass defense improved greatly throughout the season which will help this younger secondary some as he drops back to cover the slants and quick outs. I'm also entrigued by where Eric Martin will end up next year. Dobson will be piling the weight on him this summer - he could be a beast of a DE by the time we hit conference play next year. Assuming he doesn't lose too much speed he's certainly quick enough to contain guys like Pryor on the outside - or at least stretch the play to the sideline. He's my X-factor, along with Andrew Green for 2011's defense.

[NUance]

It is a “put up or shut up” year for Will Compton and any other LB not named LaVonte David. We have been blown so much smoke the past few off-seasons about these guys only to have them not deliver. Hopefully whoever comes in and replaces Ekeler finally gets these guys to play to their “potential”.

Amen. LaVonte was a godsend this year. Without him we prolly would've had a couple more losses this year.

 

We desperately need a couple other LBs to step up next season. And someone to fill Hagg's hybrid role.

[ADS]

Daimion Stafford will play a big role next year, he is physically ready to play but learning the system will be the tough part. Ciante Evans will be the next shut down corner for us, hopefully this offseason he puts a little meat on his bones.

[suh_fan93]

It is a "put up or shut up" year for Will Compton and any other LB not named LaVonte David. We have been blown so much smoke the past few off-seasons about these guys only to have them not deliver. Hopefully whoever comes in and replaces Ekeler finally gets these guys to play to their "potential".

Exactly. I'm not too confident in the other linebackers we have besides David. Even Fisher who I still think is more of a Division 2 type of athlete. I really want to see if Corey Cooper makes some noise at safety this year and thank goodness we have Dennard back. Evans looked good but his action was pretty limited and Osborne made some big hits early on but also looked out of place much of the time towards the end of the season

 

Ankrah to me anyway is still a question mark and I really hope Cam Meredith can step up next year. He needs to.

 

I still think there are a lot of guys on defense with much to prove. Luckily they've got some pretty good coaches on their side of the ball.

[BIG ERN]

Starting with the D-Line we will obviously be very solid, especially if Crick stays. As stated we have many many kids who are going to be fighting for PT next season. I think the starters will end up being Ankrah, Crick, Steinkuhler, and Meredith. Lots of rotations will be done as well since we have plenty of depth. All the Linebackers return which will help with experience. We need someone other than Lavonte to step up though. Compton, Fisher, Whaley, Martin or whoever needs to man up and play the position because it is going to be twice as vital in the Big 10 as it was for the Big 12. Our secondary loses plenty of talent, but again the Big 10 is more of a run first conference. I think we will see lots of man coverage especially with the Fonz taking the #1 receiver every game. Evans played pretty well for being a freshman and Osborne will be a solid SS spot because of his run support. P.J. smith is a good coverage safety especially in zone, but we've seen he needs to improve on tackling. I say watch out for Daimion Stafford. The kid is truly a playmaker that can also return punts and kicks. He will get plenty of PT at safety.

[junior4949]

I think our secondary will be stacked considering the playing time some of the youngsters got. Plus, there really aren't many pass happy teams like Okie State and OU in the Big 10. I'd be willing to bet we have a better run stopping D as well next year. The only team in the Big 10 that scares me if Martinez comes in and stays healthy next year is Ohio State if Pryor stays.

[General Blackshirt]

I'm shocked nobody's concerned at all with the defensive line. There is going to be a huge drop off from Allen to Ankrah. I haven't really heard many good things at all from the staff/players about Ankrah's abilities, especially in stopping the run.

 

And on that topic, our rush defense was pretty awful this year anyway. Now we move to the Big10? Yikes. I don't have the exact numbers (my computer froze the other day while in the middle of an epic statistical post ), but we gave up WAY too many rushing yards to the opposing teams between the tackles. Teams were getting 4-5-6 yards a pop against us.

 

And that was just Washington, Okie St, ISU, A&M, etc. How do you think Wisconsin, Ohio St, Michigan St, and Iowa are going to do?

 

We need to make serious adjustments up front or else it could be a long season.

[kchusker_chris]

I'm shocked nobody's concerned at all with the defensive line. There is going to be a huge drop off from Allen to Ankrah. I haven't really heard many good things at all from the staff/players about Ankrah's abilities, especially in stopping the run.

 

And on that topic, our rush defense was pretty awful this year anyway. Now we move to the Big10? Yikes. I don't have the exact numbers (my computer froze the other day while in the middle of an epic statistical post ), but we gave up WAY too many rushing yards to the opposing teams between the tackles. Teams were getting 4-5-6 yards a pop against us.

 

And that was just Washington, Okie St, ISU, A&M, etc. How do you think Wisconsin, Ohio St, Michigan St, and Iowa are going to do?

 

We need to make serious adjustments up front or else it could be a long season.

Agree w/ you about our DL this year, but they'll have another year under their belts so I'm not too worried. Or linebackers will have another year under them as well. While they might have been plugging the hole a yard or two from the line of scrimage this year, they'll be a step quicker and hitting the RB at the line of scrimage next year. If we still look the same after game 6 i'm going to be pissed though. I've heard similar talk about Ankrah (mainly on here). Maybe Eric Martin steps up? I'm holding out hope for that kid.

[General Blackshirt]

If Martin ever does become productive on the line, I would guess it would probably be as a 3rd and long type guy. I can't see him effectively holding up the line and shedding blocks in the run game.

 

I don't know a whole lot about how this stuff works, but here's a thought: Jared Crick to DE. He played one of the end positions against Missouri when we ran the Spinner, so why couldn't he play that spot in a 4-3? It's not like our ends ever get up the field with speed rushes anyway. It seems like our defensive line always emphasizes power over speed, so I think it could work.

 

Crick -- Stein -- Rome or T-Moo or T-Randle -- Meredith. That sounds better to me than having Ankrah in the mix.

[knapplc]

Ankrah is far from a bust at this point. If any coaches can get something out of the guy it's Bo and Carl. Don't write him off yet.

 

But GB, referring to your shuffled line - that's not a bad idea. We have SO MUCH talent three deep on the D Line that we could easily screw around with stuff like that. It'll be interesting to see.

[74Hunter]

I think that we will have to shuffle a little on d-line and LB. I really don't see Martin staying at DE for next year, as thin as we are at LB. We will have David, Compton, Fisher, Martin, and Whaley. Hopefully David puts on about 20 lbs of muscle and keeps his speed,and we can get maybe a juco LB to come in and play.

 

On DL, we can shuffle quite a few guys from DT to DE when we face bigger, more powerful running teams. Crick, Stein, Rome, and Cotton all seem like guys who will play at about 280-290, and have the ability to play a bigger DE spot. Randle, Guy, and Moore should be serviceable at DT, too.

 

Don't forget guys like Middleton and hopefully Anthony Blue can come back and contribute. He was starting in front of Prince before his injuries.

 

Don't forget, it's about a 50/50 split in the Big 10 when it comes to teams who run a more physical offense (Iowa, Wisconsin) and teams running the spread (Illinois, NW, tOSU, PSU) just to name a few. We will still see plenty of the Peso.

[HuskerFowler]

All we heard before the rose bowl was how Wiskys O line was bigger and they were going to push the smaller TCU line around. Didnt happen. Washington pushed our "big boys" around pretty good the other night because they actually came to play. I think there is a big stereotype that is coming with the big 10. Alot of teams are finally starting to recruit speed. I beleive we will help change the big 10 to speed, along with what tOSU is already doing. The speed in the SEC shows up the Big 10 every year, Arkansas should have beaten OSU. I think we will be fine, David is not that much smaller, and after watching the Holdiay Bowl again, Compton actually had a hell of a game. I think he had more tackles then David.

[kchusker_chris]

Crick -- Stein -- Rome or T-Moo or T-Randle -- Meredith. That sounds better to me than having Ankrah in the mix.

Rome was a DE in HS. Crick being so tall he'd make a solid DE though.

[walksalone]

I think the D will be "hungrier", for lack of a better term this year. They're going to have something to prove in the Big X.

 

But is the scheme going to have to change? Is the Peso going to be as effective since the majority of the teams don't run spread offenses. I think our personel are going to be just fine, with plenty of strength and speed, just need to refine the scheme.