Early expectations for this year.

[bshirt]

About a month ago I posted what I thought were realistic expectations. I believe I posted 8-5 or 9-4. Since then I've been drinking the koolaid an have been swayed enough to change my prediction. Don't everyone jump on my case at once but I now feel if we can get a couple breaks we will go 13-1 and end up at # 3 in the final poll!

I'm just curious what made you change your thoughts? I think we have the talent to go around 10-2 and play in the B1G championship. I think Michigan had a miracle season last year and will come back to reality this year, however Robinson can help them win games single handedly, but i think the team going to the B1G championship will come down to our game against them.

I think we finally stay out of our own way. Gonna be more efficient on 3rd downs on both sides of the ball. Taylor will run the offense with ease. And if we win 1st and 2nd down on offense, that greatly reduces TM need to be so good down the field passing the ball! Of course both lines are gonna need to be beastly. That goes without saying but I'll say it anyway. Taylor should be able to orchestrate the O in his sleep! If makes his natural progression in being able to read coverage, look out!

 

I think we are gonna be top10 in the nation on special teams. All areas. Got a lot of experience there.

 

I feel the defense is close. Some unknowns got to step up but I feel pelini will have em ready. And we should be 2-3 deep everywhere. So if we can get a couple breaks like i said...13-1 can be done. GBR!

 

 

Love it!

 

I also think the shackles will be removed from Tmart this year that will give us move big plays. More importantly, surely Beck has learned the limitations and won't play to them anymore. 3rd & short? No.....forget needing Reed to stuff a Dlineman. Forget about being cute (it didn't work for SW & it won't for you either, Tim), play to our strengths.

 

SRex, Tmart, Bell, Reed, Cotton, Turner, etc......with some serious Oline talent coming up. Oh boy, this offense is gonna be tough to deal with.

[kchusker_chris]

We saw Beck get outcoached in the second half of a few games last year as well. A lot of that has to do w/ him preparing for a new team each week. (not that a bunch of other new coordinators didn't have to do that). But I think Beck will be able to open things up a little more this year. Also, we essentially wasted our entire out-of-conference slate doing this, or doing that, or trying to get a feel for things. That's 4 important "practices" that from an offensive perspective are vital...and rather than being more coordinated they were 90% experiment IMO. Not only are we going to be well ahead of where we were going into the season, we're going to be clicking by conference play. You kind of saw it against Wisconsin...we had 45% of a good game plan. But we ran out of game plan before the half. They adjusted, we got owned. Wisconsin was almost like our first game of the season last year. This year it will truly be our 5th.

[NebraskaShellback]

Yeah, some wetting their pants because the great Urban Meyers is at Ohio State now. He got rated #1 coach in the B1G.............a joke but that is ok bring on your wide spread offense!

 

Get it together folks, we knew it would take time but the younger generation want it now. Just the attitude we do not need for the team. I see good things from last season going into this fall. I will say it will get better, it will not be a 9-4 season either.

 

I do not share some that bash Bo and TM over a BBQ. If you hate them that much, maybe Urban Legend needs more fans. In this New age, new ideas, and a sucker born every minute till they learn that building something solid based compared to glue it together to unravel later.

 

A reminder of that flag given to the team by our own miliatry, old Glory. I hope this tration continues to be carried out with the team every game. Here is a song that is my favorite, no other song have I accepted as a veteran but this one show the reality of those left behind . These are the people who get lost in the waves of every emotion in the process of healing, mental stabliaty, and spirtitual understanding.

 

http://www.myspace.com/video/broken-bridges-movie/lindsey-haun-quot-broken-quot-music-video/2409882

 

We will take that hill! A lineman from the 1997 Nebraska team said, "We did not have better athelets to the other team, we were better conditioned". If you have talent that great, not worth a damn if they can not go all 4 quarters.

 

14-0

[True2tRA]

Shellback......what you saw on those Saturdays was a product of practices. Many who have seen said Tom Osborne and his staff ran some of the most efficient and effective practices you'll ever see. I can only hope Bo has taken some notes on that subject from Mr. Osborne. Clearly we stepped on the field knowing exactly what we were going to do, and we did it for all 4 quarters. Seems to me the last 4 years we've stepped on the field, the coaches are still gameplanning, and the players are staring at the sideline waiting for the calls, not sure what they are even doing til' the last second. Game plan, practice it, go out there and execute it. Too much thinking, not enough hitting.

[The Dude]

at the end of the day, what's the difference between a dropped pass and a rush for zero yards? Both feel like turnovers to you, like we just gave up the ball? I don't see it, but ok...

I don't see it either. A rush of zero yards is less often a stupid mistake, so it doesn't feel like a turnover. A rush for zero yards might be a few mistakes on the O-line or the runner's parts, but it could also be the other team just played well.When the ball touches a receiver's hands and they drop it, often times it's an idiot mistake by the receiver rather than the other team outplaying the offense. It almost always seems like a drive killer when there's a dropped ball (especially when we rarely pass it and we'd caught the defense off guard) and it doesn't seem that way with a short rush, but that's just my feeling on it. Even psychologically a dropped ball seems a lot worse than a 0 yard rush. If the people watching are gasping and can't believe what just happened, the players aren't immune either.

 

Yeah I think it often feels like a turnover because 3rd down is usually a passing down. When you have to punt because catchable ball is dropped, to me it's almost as bad as a fumble or INT. Kyler Reed's drop against Michigan is a good example. You could tell it just deflated the team when we were still in it.

[Hunter94]

Shellback......what you saw on those Saturdays was a product of practices. Many who have seen said Tom Osborne and his staff ran some of the most efficient and effective practices you'll ever see. I can only hope Bo has taken some notes on that subject from Mr. Osborne. Clearly we stepped on the field knowing exactly what we were going to do, and we did it for all 4 quarters. Seems to me the last 4 years we've stepped on the field, the coaches are still gameplanning, and the players are staring at the sideline waiting for the calls, not sure what they are even doing til' the last second. Game plan, practice it, go out there and execute it. Too much thinking, not enough hitting.

 

 

good observation. last minute adjustments can have poor results as well as good.........too many changes at the line don't help solidify what you are really wanting to execute.

[skersfan]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

[gbr93]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

I respect your opinion, but I honestly can't see any way that this scenario can become true. I believe that we haven't recruited as well as some have desired, but I also think that we definitely have one of the more athletic teams in the country when you look across the board. I'm not exactly sure where you are getting the lack of development from because I see a lot of players on this team that are light years ahead of where they were when they came in. I will say though that the jury is still out on the line play and inexperienced coaches.

[bshirt]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

 

 

Wow.....

 

Haha, you're going to be very pleasantly surprised.

[kchusker_chris]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

I respect your opinion, but I honestly can't see any way that this scenario can become true. I believe that we haven't recruited as well as some have desired, but I also think that we definitely have one of the more athletic teams in the country when you look across the board. I'm not exactly sure where you are getting the lack of development from because I see a lot of players on this team that are light years ahead of where they were when they came in. I will say though that the jury is still out on the line play and inexperienced coaches.

I could see where you'd argue there is a lack of development after watching last season.

 

- Look at the OL. W're all hopeful it's fixed now...it's not something that was going to happen overnight. It will take Garrison/Stai/Cotton a couple of years. Last year was a year of learning. This will be a year of improvement there...but not necessarily a breakout year.

 

- The secondary...we can only hope that depth will help there. Marvin's departure was felt last year, and it will still be felt this year. A lot of those guys (Evans, Osborne (injury), Stafford, Dennard) were no better in the last game than they were in the first game of the season. I'd say Evans/Dennard actually regressed. Green progressed, but he was certainly the exception.

 

- You could even say the same thing about the DL. Stein quietly had a nice season - but you didn't see vast improvement (either as a unit or individually) as the year went on. We thought were deep, and quickly realized that wasn't the case after 1 injury? You develop depth...we obviously must not have been developing depth here. Our thought that this was a deep unit was based on talent and potential and that theory was quickly proven flawed (kind of similar to the reasoning behind our "OL depth" for this year huh?) Kaz was brought in to address that, but it's going to take a big jump in year 1.

 

- At QB - Martinez's development was kind of puzzling. He was more consistent, but not nearly as game-changing. With the exception of the Wisconsin game...you couldn't even come close to arguing he was anywhere near the reason for a loss or even really a bad series. Some of his better games where when the rest of the team was struggling. But overall I wouldn't say he was that much "better" than he was the prior year.

 

There could be "development" issues...but I don't think we can pin them on development entirely. The OL maybe. But QB was more a change of scheme. The secondary/LBers was youth/conference change, etc. other arguments to support the "lack of development" thing would center around the backups not getting on the field enough. Which is an entirely different can of worms.

[austinhusker]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

 

 

C'mon Man! I agree that I have been worried at times over which direction our recruiting/coaching is going... However, we return experience at QB, one of the best RB's in the conference/nation, and more overall experience across the board... We will win no less than 8 games...I would say 8 games is our basement with 12 being our ceiling...

[True2tRA]

Lack of recruiting, lack of development, poor line play, inexperienced coaches will lead to the worst year of the Pelini experiment. This will be the beginning of the end for Bo I am afraid. Could end up being very embarassing down the road.

 

Hope I am completely wrong on this, but I do not buy the hype, the coach speak, the players running their mouths. My guess is we lose more than we win, no bowl game.

Lack of recruiting, not so much. We've recruited some very talented young athletes. Lack of development, absolutely, it's been shocking how little improvement we see individually from season to season. Poor line play, no doubt about it, I'd say the defensive line and their lack of a push is even worse than the offensive line's inability to move the line, but both have been very flat. The coaching carousel has clearly hurt this team so I can't say I disagree with you there. I don't agree that this will be the beginning of the end for Bo because I think the university is pretty committed to him. I have to say that I can see this as possibly being Bo's worst year here. Like you, I have had my fill of the coach speak, and sick to death of the talk that comes from the players or coaches. It's always a bunch of nonsense and has not yet ever been proven to be true when it's all said and done. We will win more than we lose, but it might not be by much. 5 losses is very possible with this schedule, putting us a 7-5 and into a bowl. The coach speak of the year so far has been that Taylor is "night and day" from last year. He better be, because that is the only way I could see this team completely proving me wrong is if Taylor shows an ability to move this offense.

[Chaddyboxer]

I've stated this many times before...this will be Bo's best season at Nebraska. I'll eat my crow otherwise...

[Guy Chamberlin]

Husker fans can be impatient and some of the Bo-bashing has been unfair. But if the Huskers do not play improved football this year, the honeymoon is officially over and we should start banging other coaches.

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Husker fans can be impatient and some of the Bo-bashing has been unfair. But if the Huskers do not play improved football this year, the honeymoon is officially over and WE SHOULD START BANGING OTHER COACHES!

HUH?