*** Official Michigan Game Discussion Thread ***

[quitou]

You have got to play the back-ups either in blow-out losses or blow-out wins.  These guys need to get some reps and also like someone said, the starters need to stand on the sidelines and get some perspective when you are getting killed.  I live in Phoenix, and although a different sport, the Phoenix Suns come to mind.  Back in the early 90's we have a coach who would play a second squad of 5 even in crunch time to give the starters a rest but also to have quality depth.  Then our coach a few years ago, only played 7-8 guys the entire game.  When a starter went down or the front 5 were gassed, we were dead.  No experience on court and we couldn't afford to have any of the starters out for more than a few minutes.

 

I don't understand a coaching staff who won't give time/experience to its players, starters and back-ups.  Back in the TO days, we would have our starters out of a game by the 2nd series of the 3rd Qtr.  Of course, we were good back then...

Scholarships weren't limited back then. College Football has changed... you should really get used to that before you become 'get off my lawn' guy.

[Pedro Guerrero]

Nebraska football can be summed up in one word these last 4 seasons....mediocre.

 

Better then the words that could be used to describe the 4 years previous to that....

 

So just because we are better than we were under Billy C we are supposed to be happy?

 

Not at all.... I'm just raining straight facts up in here....

 

You are right mediocre is better than crappy.

[3rd and long]

Shouldn't this raise a red flag then, that this is something that gets repeated.

 

I don't get it. Yes, we lose games...it happens almost every year. This would be our third loss this year. When we lose, we knock Bo for coachspeak. And when I suggest he take blame, we knock him for...losing.

 

It is a no-win situation for the coach obviously, but the point I'm trying to make is that Bo, if he says the right things in the presser, is doing things the right way. This is a tough game for any coach. I would say though, the biggest blame today goes on Beck for calling a largely lifeless offense, and on the effin' special teams.

 

I'm saying if the coach is saying he is getting outcoached every time we lose, then we have a huge coaching issue. If he was just saying it to take the heat off his players, maybe not such a big deal, but to me, there is a lot of truth to him saying he is getting outcoached.

 

You can't win 'em all.

 

I suspect you will find that we will, to borrow the term... "consistently" lose three to four games every year. Some years will be better. The others? 9 or 10 win seasons.

 

And you know what, that's ok, if the other team is winning because they are consistently outplaying us. Be this continual lack of preparadness, fundamentals, and discipline is being "outcoached", time and time again. How many of our losses over the last few years can you attribute to the other team flat out playing better than us compared to the ones where we have come out not ready to play, and have just stunk up the joint.

[zoogs]

Shouldn't this raise a red flag then, that this is something that gets repeated.

 

I don't get it. Yes, we lose games...it happens almost every year. This would be our third loss this year. When we lose, we knock Bo for coachspeak. And when I suggest he take blame, we knock him for...losing.

 

It is a no-win situation for the coach obviously, but the point I'm trying to make is that Bo, if he says the right things in the presser, is doing things the right way. This is a tough game for any coach. I would say though, the biggest blame today goes on Beck for calling a largely lifeless offense, and on the effin' special teams.

 

I'm saying if the coach is saying he is getting outcoached every time we lose, then we have a huge coaching issue. If he was just saying it to take the heat off his players, maybe not such a big deal, but to me, there is a lot of truth to him saying he is getting outcoached.

 

Pin this on Beck, by the way.

 

D-Rob is difficult to contain, but we did a fairly good job on him. You could see the defense shine through at times. Keep in mind though, Michigan ran about 80 plays. And we gave the ball to them something like three times deep in our own territory as we self-destructed. The D made several stops, only to have the drive get extended - penalty, fake FG, BS penalty...the latter of those two occurring on special teams.

 

The offense was completely unable to stay on the field today.

[Sub-Husker]

Who said anything about being "happy?" We're better than we were under Callahan. That's all he said.

 

Except in recruiting... Bo has recruited slower players.

[Husker66]

David played well and maybe a few other guys at times. Overall we stunk on an epic level!

 

This season is a big disappointment. 9-3? 8-4?

 

It's the constant mistakes that drive me nuts.

 

 

People will say oh hey 9 wins, that's a great season, but when you look at the losses and how they occurred, it's not a good season.

 

even the wins...i was not impressed by our win over a very distracted Penn state. theyd a whooped us if it was normal times...

[knapplc]

Exactly. I love how people use the TO argument for keeping Bo around. Times have changed. You don't get 20 years to prove yourself.

 

How long do you give a coach? Do you expect to be competing for a BCS spot within four years? If so, how many coaches would be fired every year for not doing just that?

 

Times have changed. Parity has struck, like it or not. And we're not going to get those 80s and 90s teams of partial-qualifiers anymore. So with that as a handicap, what do you do? fire Pelini and bring in.... who? And how much do you pay him? And if he doesn't perform, then you fire him in four years and bring in... who? And how much do you pay him?

 

That cycle is downward, not upward. We've hitched our wagon to Pelini, like it or not. If we fire him, we had better have a guaranteed bona-fide can't-miss coach lined up before he's gone, at a decent price, or we are screwed. Bill Callahan screwed. Kevin Cosgrove screwed.

[NUance]

You'd think. But some people are ok with it as long as he owns up to his mistakes. I'm not. QUIT MAKING THEM.

 

It's not that simple. You can't just fire a coach with several years' in a row of winning records. You'll never get another coach that way.

 

Frank Solich come to mind?

 

No, but consistent mediocrity does.

 

You're calling 9- 10- 10- and no worse than 8-win seasons back-to-back-to-back-to-back "mediocre?"

 

You may as well get used to having horrible coaches then, because if you fire that coach, nobody will come to coach for you.

 

Well, Bill Callahan will come. And I think we all know how that will work out.

 

Yeah, if we just hold on for another 10-20 years we will be right into the thick of things again.

 

Totally get your point. And it's not OK. Bo has a LOT of explaining to do at this point. But you cannot just recycle coaches every four years and expect to have a team. Rebuilding alone will take a year or two.

^^ This. And people forget that the last time we fired a winning coach, Solich, we got Callahan. How'd that turn out for us?

[B.B. Hemingway]

Nebraska football can be summed up in one word these last 4 seasons....mediocre.

 

Better then the words that could be used to describe the 4 years previous to that....

 

So just because we are better than we were under Billy C we are supposed to be happy?

 

Who said anything about being "happy?" We're better than we were under Callahan. That's all he said.

 

If we (Nebraska) were into firing 9/10 win coaches, then we wouldn't have one of the greatest coaches of all time in our history books, and we wouldn't have put together the most dominating five year stretch in college football history, with that same coach.

 

We are all lucky that some of your are not making the decisions. If any of you honestly think Bo is anywhere close to the "hot seat" you obviously don't have any idea what you are talking about. Especially Osborne being the AD, he knows all about what Bo is going through.

[knapplc]

Who said anything about being "happy?" We're better than we were under Callahan. That's all he said.

 

Except in recruiting... Bo has recruited slower players.

 

Not according to their Rivals and Scout 40-times. What are you basing that on?

[Husker Richard]

I'd bring in a proven head coach, not some glorified DC banking on the fact that he's a competent head coach.

[B.B. Hemingway]

You'd think. But some people are ok with it as long as he owns up to his mistakes. I'm not. QUIT MAKING THEM.

 

It's not that simple. You can't just fire a coach with several years' in a row of winning records. You'll never get another coach that way.

 

Frank Solich come to mind?

 

No, but consistent mediocrity does.

 

You're calling 9- 10- 10- and no worse than 8-win seasons back-to-back-to-back-to-back "mediocre?"

 

You may as well get used to having horrible coaches then, because if you fire that coach, nobody will come to coach for you.

 

Well, Bill Callahan will come. And I think we all know how that will work out.

 

Yeah, if we just hold on for another 10-20 years we will be right into the thick of things again.

 

Exactly. I love how people use the TO argument for keeping Bo around. Times have changed. You don't get 20 years to prove yourself.

 

If you average 9 or 10 wins a year, then you probably do get close to 20 years, especially at Nebraska....Osborne will have patience with Bo.

[AFhusker]

Nebraska football can be summed up in one word these last 4 seasons....mediocre.

So... what's not mediocre? 1 more win? 2 more? That's not mediocre, that's top 5. Your expectation are sad, and you're the problem with NE's fanbase.

 

No actually it's fans like you that are the problem. You accept mediocre results and keep asking for more time. Coaching cost NU the CCG last year by playing an one legged TMart and now UM is already better than us before Hoke's really good recruiting classes start rolling in. So do you think that this is going to get any better? The gap is going to widen with the way the program is being run by Bo. Our ceiling is going to be fighting MSU and Iowa for #2 in the division if this keeps up.

[zoogs]

And you know what, that's ok, if the other team is winning because they are consistently outplaying us. Be this continual lack of preparadness, fundamentals, and discipline is being "outcoached", time and time again. How many of our losses over the last few years can you attribute to the other team flat out playing better than us compared to the ones where we have come out not ready to play, and have just stunk up the joint.

 

Uh, did our players out-play Michigan today only to have our staff out-coached? It is both, and it is both every time.

 

Some of our issues right now are players not being good enough, which you can point to the coaches as a recruiting issue. Really though, there is almost no time where a loss is not both on the coaches who coached the game, and the players who played it. Unless it was some freak, fluky occurrence. Otherwise, you are just describing any loss ever.

[Jason Sitoke]

Today was a big step back for Martinez. He looked like TMart from late last year: poor passing, taking bad sacks, missing the hole in the run game.

 

I'm concerned that Martinez doesn't have the vision that a great runner needs. If he doesn't have it now, will he ever?

 

Davison is talking about how the defense should get a break because they were on the field so much.....yes and no. Certainly the ST play put them out there a ton. But if you're getting owned on 3rd down, you have no one to blame but yourself. The DLine is one pathetic unit right now. Why rush 4 on 3rd down. Just put 3 down lineman in and put another linebacker in there. Not ONCE did I see DL beating one on one pass blocking all day.

 

Lance Thorell should not see the field on 3rd and medium. Not sure what matchup we were trying to get there.

 

Not much to take away from this game, other than NO phase of the game looked good.

 

Lavonte played brilliantly. Compton was pretty good. Stafford was great in rush defense, his usual spotty self in pass defense.

On offense, I really can't think of anyone that played well.

 

I guess beat Iowa in the 'Who Cares' rivalry, and then get a win in the 'GoDaddy.com' bowl and call it a year.

 

I'm trying not to be reactionary, but this game was really discouraging as far as the QB position goes. He wasn't a difference maker. He didn't make plays that were there. If he's leaving yards out there in the running game, how exactly is he going to win games? With his arm? The QB may not be on the top 5 list of things that sucked today, but it is the most concerning for me looking at the big picture.

 

Maybe I'm focusing so much on the QB position because I don't even want to fathom what this defense, minus Dennard and David, is going to look like (shivers)