Report Card for this year . . .

[The Big Red Husker]

Burkhead: A-. No need to expound on the obvious.

Why did you give him an A-? Just curious. I think he deserves an A+. He did so much more than just play football. He was a leader but he never put himself out in the spotlight, his character was impecable and he sacrificed for the team.

 

 

Burkehead gets an A+ for effort and attitude. However, I am trying to rank him in the pantheon of all-time Husker seasons. With that in mind, he gets an A-. He had 1,385 yards, but he also had about 1,385 carries. If Lawrence Phillips or Ahman Green had as many carries, they would have run for 2,400 yards.

 

Behind our line with that many carries...no way Ahman holds up as well as Rex did....LP would have had a hard time running behind our line this year as well.... The key with Rex was he hit the hole and drove the pile consistently North and South. Without him we are probably sub .500 team this season.

 

I would like to see some position changes for next year. Williams is almost big enough for DT and with his movement that would suit us better anyway. I also would like to see PJ Smith get a look at Peso. I think we will be ok next year on Defense, this season we replaced 3 in the secondary and the 4th was out for the first 4 games. Then we lost 3 of the top 6 DT......and our LB core was thin....spells disaster eh.

 

Secondary: Next season we replace Cassidy and Dennard....Dennard will be sorely missed but we played 4 games without him and that will pay dividends from an experience aspect. Cassidy was a steady player who when in position made plays but I think we can upgrade that spot with athleticism with several different options. We have a lot of young talent here that we have not seen yet, this is an area we have recruited well in the last two years. Cooper, Jackson, Smith, Osborne, Mitchell, to name a few who will have expanded roles. Green really stepped up his game and Evans has a lot of experience now also, and don't forget Jackson who might enroll in January.....

 

LB: Losing David will hurt A LOT, however we return everyone else, so as a group this might offset the loss of David some. Compton really came on late, and will be perfectly suited in the B1G Ten, if any of the new guys can come in and step up, along with Whaley, who I think was ready this season from a physical aspect, we might be ok here. Santos and Zaire both could start from day 1, as I believe Fisher is done seeing the field at NU. Also the TF (Rose) from Kansas City has a shot at playing time if he can learn the defense, he is physically a beast and runs very well.

 

DL: This is the one area that disappointed me the most in 2011, to get almost no production from either DE spot all year was a complete failure. I have said this two years in a row now, we have put too much weight on these guys and now they have lost their quickness and mobility, as they add strength in the offseason hopefully some of this will be regained. Martin is the only legitmate threat to track down a semi mobile QB, the rest are just a nuisance that can be easily side stepped or outrun by 65% of the QB's in our league. Crick was not healthy from day 1, go back and rewatch the Fresno State game and watch how he holds up, his loss won't be felt other than in a leadership role. His loss was definitely felt in 2011, but he contributed very little this season at less than 100%. We need a healthy Randle and a muscled up Jay Guy in 2012, to go along with Rome and Stein, and if Peat is as good as they say we might be much better here than we ever were in 2011.

 

A few JC guys would be welcomed to immediately help and bolster a relatively thin senior class as well.

[ladyhawke]

Burkhead: A-. No need to expound on the obvious.

Why did you give him an A-? Just curious. I think he deserves an A+. He did so much more than just play football. He was a leader but he never put himself out in the spotlight, his character was impecable and he sacrificed for the team.

 

 

Burkehead gets an A+ for effort and attitude. However, I am trying to rank him in the pantheon of all-time Husker seasons. With that in mind, he gets an A-. He had 1,385 yards, but he also had about 1,385 carries. If Lawrence Phillips or Ahman Green had as many carries, they would have run for 2,400 yards.

 

Behind our line with that many carries...no way Ahman holds up as well as Rex did....LP would have had a hard time running behind our line this year as well.... The key with Rex was he hit the hole and drove the pile consistently North and South. Without him we are probably sub .500 team this season.

 

I would like to see some position changes for next year. Williams is almost big enough for DT and with his movement that would suit us better anyway. I also would like to see PJ Smith get a look at Peso. I think we will be ok next year on Defense, this season we replaced 3 in the secondary and the 4th was out for the first 4 games. Then we lost 3 of the top 6 DT......and our LB core was thin....spells disaster eh.

 

Secondary: Next season we replace Cassidy and Dennard....Dennard will be sorely missed but we played 4 games without him and that will pay dividends from an experience aspect. Cassidy was a steady player who when in position made plays but I think we can upgrade that spot with athleticism with several different options. We have a lot of young talent here that we have not seen yet, this is an area we have recruited well in the last two years. Cooper, Jackson, Smith, Osborne, Mitchell, to name a few who will have expanded roles. Green really stepped up his game and Evans has a lot of experience now also, and don't forget Jackson who might enroll in January.....

 

LB: Losing David will hurt A LOT, however we return everyone else, so as a group this might offset the loss of David some. Compton really came on late, and will be perfectly suited in the B1G Ten, if any of the new guys can come in and step up, along with Whaley, who I think was ready this season from a physical aspect, we might be ok here. Santos and Zaire both could start from day 1, as I believe Fisher is done seeing the field at NU. Also the TF (Rose) from Kansas City has a shot at playing time if he can learn the defense, he is physically a beast and runs very well.

 

DL: This is the one area that disappointed me the most in 2011, to get almost no production from either DE spot all year was a complete failure. I have said this two years in a row now, we have put too much weight on these guys and now they have lost their quickness and mobility, as they add strength in the offseason hopefully some of this will be regained. Martin is the only legitmate threat to track down a semi mobile QB, the rest are just a nuisance that can be easily side stepped or outrun by 65% of the QB's in our league. Crick was not healthy from day 1, go back and rewatch the Fresno State game and watch how he holds up, his loss won't be felt other than in a leadership role. His loss was definitely felt in 2011, but he contributed very little this season at less than 100%. We need a healthy Randle and a muscled up Jay Guy in 2012, to go along with Rome and Stein, and if Peat is as good as they say we might be much better here than we ever were in 2011.

 

A few JC guys would be welcomed to immediately help and bolster a relatively thin senior class as well.

Question: Why is our senior class so thin? Did we not go after the right players or not enough of the right players?

[nebraskaart]

Nice work, but I don't agree giving Bell and Burkhead the same A-. I might say Bell gets an A- for a freshman.

[Joe_5700]

I know this is personal opinion and all, but I don't see how 9 wins could be a C.

Steve Pederson does not agree with your post!

[Stickney]

Trying to grade the O-line or D-line without knowing the blocking call or the gap responsibilities is impossible.

 

Just because an O-lineman appears to run past a guy does not mean he missed "his" block. In the same way, just because he seems to hit someone doesn't mean he made the block he was supposed to have made.

 

Rex is a solid A.

[Blackshirt96]

Marlow was better then a "C". I would give him a "B+" made some great grabs at the end of the year to keep drives alive. He was really starting to remind me of Nate Swift.

[The Big Red Husker]

Burkhead: A-. No need to expound on the obvious.

Why did you give him an A-? Just curious. I think he deserves an A+. He did so much more than just play football. He was a leader but he never put himself out in the spotlight, his character was impecable and he sacrificed for the team.

 

 

Burkehead gets an A+ for effort and attitude. However, I am trying to rank him in the pantheon of all-time Husker seasons. With that in mind, he gets an A-. He had 1,385 yards, but he also had about 1,385 carries. If Lawrence Phillips or Ahman Green had as many carries, they would have run for 2,400 yards.

 

Behind our line with that many carries...no way Ahman holds up as well as Rex did....LP would have had a hard time running behind our line this year as well.... The key with Rex was he hit the hole and drove the pile consistently North and South. Without him we are probably sub .500 team this season.

 

I would like to see some position changes for next year. Williams is almost big enough for DT and with his movement that would suit us better anyway. I also would like to see PJ Smith get a look at Peso. I think we will be ok next year on Defense, this season we replaced 3 in the secondary and the 4th was out for the first 4 games. Then we lost 3 of the top 6 DT......and our LB core was thin....spells disaster eh.

 

Secondary: Next season we replace Cassidy and Dennard....Dennard will be sorely missed but we played 4 games without him and that will pay dividends from an experience aspect. Cassidy was a steady player who when in position made plays but I think we can upgrade that spot with athleticism with several different options. We have a lot of young talent here that we have not seen yet, this is an area we have recruited well in the last two years. Cooper, Jackson, Smith, Osborne, Mitchell, to name a few who will have expanded roles. Green really stepped up his game and Evans has a lot of experience now also, and don't forget Jackson who might enroll in January.....

 

LB: Losing David will hurt A LOT, however we return everyone else, so as a group this might offset the loss of David some. Compton really came on late, and will be perfectly suited in the B1G Ten, if any of the new guys can come in and step up, along with Whaley, who I think was ready this season from a physical aspect, we might be ok here. Santos and Zaire both could start from day 1, as I believe Fisher is done seeing the field at NU. Also the TF (Rose) from Kansas City has a shot at playing time if he can learn the defense, he is physically a beast and runs very well.

 

DL: This is the one area that disappointed me the most in 2011, to get almost no production from either DE spot all year was a complete failure. I have said this two years in a row now, we have put too much weight on these guys and now they have lost their quickness and mobility, as they add strength in the offseason hopefully some of this will be regained. Martin is the only legitmate threat to track down a semi mobile QB, the rest are just a nuisance that can be easily side stepped or outrun by 65% of the QB's in our league. Crick was not healthy from day 1, go back and rewatch the Fresno State game and watch how he holds up, his loss won't be felt other than in a leadership role. His loss was definitely felt in 2011, but he contributed very little this season at less than 100%. We need a healthy Randle and a muscled up Jay Guy in 2012, to go along with Rome and Stein, and if Peat is as good as they say we might be much better here than we ever were in 2011.

 

A few JC guys would be welcomed to immediately help and bolster a relatively thin senior class as well.

Question: Why is our senior class so thin? Did we not go after the right players or not enough of the right players?

 

Bo's first two classes did not pan out as well as his last two....I think the perception of NU was down a little bit and he had his work cut out for him, and honestly we didn't recruit as well as we had been under Callahan. The last two years have been much better, and now this year we are shooting for top talent..... BUT we have to get some of these guys signed soon.