A Promising Sign

[Moiraine]

Apples and Oranges.

How so? I'm just pointing out that 1s vs. 1s isn't necessarily going to turn the team around.

Well, unless you think Pelini sucks as a coach now, that's why it's apples and oranges.

[da skers]

Callahan did this in 07 after the USC game. Just sayin'

Are you referring to Callahan's contact-free practices?

 

I am referring to the fact that, after USC put it on NU, BC had 1's vs. 1's, with pads, to try and help.

 

But yes, you are right, it was a weak attempt to make up for his no-contact practices, something I'm sure Bo does not do. At least I hope he doesn't do.

How did that work out? We bounced back with a huge 41-40 victory over Ball St, and after beating Iowa St, lost 6 of our final 7.

 

It's not magical.

Apples and Oranges.

How so? I'm just pointing out that 1s vs. 1s isn't necessarily going to turn the team around.

 

I agree but the two instances aren't the same either so we're not going lay an egg every game the rest of the season. We have a chance at least this time.

 

 

Practices under BC didn't have us tackling full force for one (during the season). The defender was to make contact and wrap of the player but not take them to the ground and risk injury. Defensive players at times were also required to keep their hands down so the QB's had passing lanes so they could work on the timing of routes and not have to worry about tipped balls killing the learning process. The switch mid season was new. We hadn't worked on some of those things for months and had gotten sloppy. Some had never even been worked on at all in his time so when you tell kids we've been doing everything wrong up until this point you lose your team because they don't trust you as a coach.

 

Bo has always kept practice physical and has worked 1 vs. 1 everyday just in shorter segments because thats their instruction and development time. The past year and a half we've moved in season to more scout stuff and this year even more because every team is a new team we need to learn. Early fall camp was 1 v 1 nearly all the time for long periods and thats where we made some progress but as the season goes on we let up on some of that. Now we're going back and two days a week giving it 45-60 mins of development now instead of the 15-20 minutes daily. Thats something we did in years one and two that we move away from as we had kids in Bo's system and we expected knowledge to trickle down. The 1 vs 1 style is not new. Its what we've still been doing daily. We're just devoting more time to it now. Its not a total change in what we were doing altogether, but hopefully will allow for a slight to modest improvement. We're not going to see huge gains at this point. If we do they're 100 times better coaches than I think they are.

[Karsaire]

Not to be a smart ass but maybe that is why Beck thought we could move the ball by having Martinez drop back and throw from the pocket. Our secondary play has not been anything a person should use to judge their offensive prowess.

 

You're probably spot on with this observation JJHusker1. If Martinez was hitting open receivers against our 2nd string it possibly could have given Beck a false assessment at Taylor's progress in the passing game. I know we practiced a lot 1's vs. 1's during Fall Camp, so it kind of amazes me that they would go away from that once the season started. I understand you don't want to get your top players hurt in practice, but at the same time you also don't want your players to gain a false sense of themselves by how they perform in practice if they are going up against 2nd string talent.

Actually, my intention was to point out that going against our first string, the way they have been playing, probably isn't going change much. Trying to be humorous but unfortunately also realistic. I am currently much more down on our D than I am our QB play. I realize that 3 picks against a team the caliber of Wiscy will kill you but our highly touted D has not lived up to expectations. Based on their hype and last years performance they should have stopped 2 if not all 3 of the subsequent scoring drives. Then maybe Beck doesn't panic and go all Air Correlle(sp) on us. The D needs to start bringing the pain. The real solution in my eyes is to limit putting Taylor in the position where we HAVE to throw deep. I think we get there with much better D, and fewer O-line mistakes. Field position and manageable down and distance. I don't blame Taylor because he isn't that type of QB. Never will be. The people piling on him need to start accepting this fact and temper their criticism with this knowledge.

 

BTW- I enjoy your comments.

 

First of all thank you JJHusker1, I am flattered that you enjoy my comments. I just enjoy sharing in civil discussions with other Husker fans about the team that we support.

 

After the Wisconsin game I am like you in that I am concerned about our defense. I will admit I too was also frustrated with Taylor throwing those 3 interceptions.

 

On the interceptions, yes, Taylor needs to make better decisions, but Coach Beck also has to understand the positive skill sets of his starting quarterback, and drop back passing is not one of those skill sets. Beck has to help Taylor and the team as a whole by calling a more balanced game in order for Taylor to be comfortable and successful. Calling 13 passing plays out of a 15 play stretch is not balanced. I think everyone learned their lesson after the Wisconsin game, and I expect a more solid game plan this week for Ohio State.

 

On the defensive concerns, and I think I mentioned this in another post this week, so forgive me if any of you have read this already. But I think most of our defensive problems this year can be traced back to youth in the secondary and players who were recruited to defend the spread. Many of our defensive players were recruited by Bo & Carl as Safety/Linebacker hybrids to stop the spread offenses of the Big 12. Bo has admitted that they will recruit more true linebackers in the future. So, these defensive struggles, while frustrating, are not a sign of a lack of talent, rather it's just some growing pains the team will have to get through this season, and us fans will also.

 

Finally, about your comment on where people need to stop pilling on and criticizing Taylor, I couldn't agree with you more. At the end of the day we are all fans of the Nebraska football team. Taylor is the starting quarterback for that team, and we as fans MUST support the team win, lose, or draw. That is one of the reasons why Nebraska fans are so well respected around the country. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't voice our opinions when things are not going well for our team or if the team is not playing the right way (i.e. Nebraska 2007), but we should leave the personal attacks of the players out of the conversation.

I couldnt agree with you more. The defense has some growing pains. painful yea but not the end of the world. I think taylor needs our aupport as well. It's hard to go out and play for the N on your helmet when the N isnt buating their butt back for you. The wrinkles will iron out and wveryone needs to calm down. It seems fans have gotten so whiney (yeai realize theirony of that statement). Everyone needs to calm down take a deep breath and then scream as loud as they can for our big red. Not every year is going to be 1971 95 97 or even 01. Not evry defense is going to be 09. There is no reason to meltdow...not even close.