Are we a better or worse team since Carl Pelini left?

[ladyhawke]

I was listening to 1620 the Zone this afternoon and the above subject was broached. Is Nebraska better with or without Carl? One announcer (I think Bishop) said that he head that Carl did most of the Dline teaching when he was here. Michael said he hadn't heard that. S'ville went on to say that Bo is al ot more relaxed since Carl left. What do you guys think? Is our defense better or worse off since Carl left?

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

Same = bad!

 

 

 

Oh yeah and Carl had Vonte!

[FriendlyLurker2007]

d line appears to be worse...not sure if it has anything to do with carl tho

[irieboy8]

i'll go ahead and add another "i heard" comment

 

wasn't bo kinda the general on D and Carl was his assistant?? if so it doenst excuse the fact that the D has gotten pretty worse each year after those initial glory runs.... i dont know whats going on but for whatever reason its not good

[zoogs]

I look forward to a DL resurgence under Kaz. This is his first year, so I guess he'll get some rope. I don't think Carl was really getting it done on DL...and if Bo is more relaxed without Carl around, and Carl gets to enjoy being 'the man' down at Florida Atlantic or wherever, then I really think this is a win-win-win. Best for all parties.

[akita]

I will add my 2 cents. IF I was making 3.8 million a year and was an expert on defense. I would either tank the job and get my pay out and hang with the children or I would go ballistic and barely spend any time with my family.

[HuskerShark]

It's worse, but it has nothing to do with Carl leaving.

[knapplc]

I think Bishop knows better than to toss this question out in the manner he did. Maybe he doesn't, or maybe he does and he just asked it in this way to spur conversation (which is his job on the radio, I guess).

 

There are several different nuances involved in answering this question. Not an easy answer at all.

[roadrat]

You mean Carl had time to coach???

[walksalone]

It's been two games. If you're gonna base whether or not we're better or worse on a two game sample, then you're a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket...

[RedRedJarvisRedwine]

I think Bishop knows better than to toss this question out in the manner he did. Maybe he doesn't, or maybe he does and he just asked it in this way to spur conversation (which is his job on the radio, I guess).

 

There are several different nuances involved in answering this question. Not an easy answer at all.

Only one NUance Knapp, and he is property of HB!

[tschu]

Bishop didn't even ask this question. Neither did Michael, although Michael pursued the topic the most. The question was posed by an emailer; they read the email on air and discussed it for about 2 minutes, tops. And I think there's some merit to it.

 

Carl Pelini, our defensive coordinator, leaves to take a head coaching job. Our defense puts up a couple of bad performances. And we're supposed to completely ignore this fact and brush it aside as if Carl couldn't possibly have anything to do with it??

 

Now I'm not saying that Carl is a genius and Kaz/Papuchis are not cut out for the job, but what I am saying is that an inexperienced guy taking over his first D-coordinator job...that absolutely might have something to do with it. Of course it might be a factor, it would be idiotic to assume otherwise.

[Fuzzy]

Defensively we are worse, but not by much. I mean last year we had Carl and we had a down year defensively. We had some major shifts defensively this offseason, JP moved to DC, We brought Kaz in from Iowa to take over the defensive line, and Raymond for the secondary.

 

I mean, you never know, you can draw a correlation between defensive coaching changes in the past 3 - 4 seasons and how the defensive productivity has slipped. Maybe its just as easy as new coaching staff is taking a while to develop trust among the players coming into the program.

[lo country]

Defensively we are worse, but not by much. I mean last year we had Carl and we had a down year defensively. We had some major shifts defensively this offseason, JP moved to DC, We brought Kaz in from Iowa to take over the defensive line, and Raymond for the secondary.

 

I mean, you never know, you can draw a correlation between defensive coaching changes in the past 3 - 4 seasons and how the defensive productivity has slipped. Maybe its just as easy as new coaching staff is taking a while to develop trust among the players coming into the program.

This^. I think you throw in a new DB coach, new DC and new DL coach your are setting yourself up. IMO, it would be very hard to teach the kids when you are learning the job yourself. IIRC, Els is in year 2. Again, for all intensive purposes, no real experience.

 

I compare it to the offense last year and this. New, no experience OC, with a new WR coach sets us up to do less than spectacular. I think that against UCLA, a more experienced OC keeps pounding the ball in the second half and doesn't abandon the run for our last couple of series.

 

I think what has hurt us, is hiring guys with little to no experience and very little track record regarding a body of work that can be seen. No doubt, our young staff has the potential to become elite. Potential simply meaning they have done nothing yet. The downside is the young inexperienced staff will continue to lose the games when they become a chess match. Not because they are "bad" coaches, it is because they lack the experience. I would guess that in many of your personal lives you see examples of this all the time. Experience counts for something. That is why folks expect more from Martinez. It is his 3rd year. An experienced coach, IMO, can get younger kids up to speed a whole lot faster. All this talk of the "system" and the "process" is probably true. Sadly, Paps has been in charge of the "process" and the "system" less than some of the kids on the team. Same with the rest of the staff.

 

Bottom line, our staff continues to learn and grow together and get 9 wins a year. Several years from now, if they are all together, we can expect a lot more. We often blame the lack of talent on the kids, but the same could be said for the staff. A lot of folks have talked about so and so being a rising star in the coaching world, no different than a HS 4* coming here and not panning out.

 

Lastly, IMO, our biggest loss was the loss of Sanders. His body of work, again IMO, speaks for itself. As does the number of guys he coached that are now in the league.

[teachercd]

You know, in the end I am starting to think it is just a mix of average talent and average assistant coaching. Not bad, not terrible, just average. When you mix in a bunch of average you usually get average.