Turner - Sometimes, we laid down. We weren't bringing the fight back.

[irafreak]

The standard of excellence has been forgotten. Strapping on the "N" doesn't mean what it used to for these players. The attitude and effort put forth by the players on these Pelini teams is utterly disgraceful. What in the hell is up with the players' sideline disinterest for the game--especially when they're playing like crap? Bo needs to stop this experiment with being their friend and go old testament, because these players lack focus and discipline.

 

 

we didn't used to just win games, we used to punish our competition...that hunger and pride is long gone....

and when NU went down in defeat it used to be fighting all the way and punishing the opponent. Even when NU lost (which was 2 times a year on average) under Osborne --- they went down not because they were unfocused, unmotivated, out-hustled or were lacking in intensity. They were focused, intense, violent, well-prepared and went down against better foes that day. No dishonor in that.

 

If the current NU team was like that... hair on fire intense every play all game irrespective of score --- if they played with focus and were violent, giving all on every play every game and finished with 5 or 6 losses a season I would be satisfied and never complain. The record is not the point. How the team plays --- that is the point. So... under Bo, the point (at least for me) is not that they have failed to be a champion of anything... or that they failed to do well record-wise against good foes. It is that the team has been (and seemingly continues to be) poorly prepared, lacking in drive, non-physical (relative to where they should be), generally non-intense, poorly coached and lacking in focus. That is, to me, a dishonorable way to lose (or win --- as the Wyoming game is an example... NU played w/o intensity, focus or drive but won because their foe was simply wildly over-matched by talent deficit relative to NU). NU picks up some uninspired wins this way... and that is not worth accolades at all.

So, when NU lost games under TO, they only lost to "better teams".

1981--#7 NU lost to an unranked Iowa.

1984--#1 NU lost to an unranked Syracuse

1986--#3 NU lost to an unranked Colorado

1990--#10 NU lost to an unranked Oklahoma (by 35)

1992--#7 NU lost to an unranked Iowa State (the ultimate sleep walking loss)

1993--#6 NU goes down to the wire against unranked Kansas (winning when KU missed a 2-pt conversion in last minute of game)

1994--#2 NU almost lost to unranked Wyoming (Benning said the team was not focused for that game)

1997--#6 NU plays Central Florida very close (bringing boos against Scott Frost)

 

Yes, the lack of focus about Bo's teams are concerning, but don't act like NU played every game lights out under Tom Osborne. There are plenty of games under TO, where the team came out flat, and the team had close games or even lost.

You listed 8 games from a 25 year career. I can think of 8 games off the top of my head from the last 2 years....hell last year alone....

[irafreak]

You play like you practice is my cliche axiom. If dudes are pussyfooting around at practice and the coaches are letting it slide, we will be in store for a bumpy ride this season. Players cannot expect to just go half ass through the motions at practice then magically amp it to 1000 volts come game day, bad mentality to have as a player, even worse for coaches to foster. I have heard that Jake Cotton is one nasty SOB at practice, maybe just maybe Bo should let guys go full speed, suit up, knock each other out then truly find out who exactly on this team has heart. We may not be stacked with 5 star recruits but focus and resiliency can equalize a 3 star and 5 star guy. The Huskers I grew up watching didn't crumble when they got punched in the jaw, where is that team? Better yet where is that mentality?

We heard all the stories about McBride getting upset at a lack of effort in practice and simply grabbing the next player and giving him the shot to earn his place. Maybe we don't have enough competition in practice. Too many guaranteed spots...

 

Hell sit the entire first string this saturday for the first series. See if that doesn't get them ready to play...and if the 2nd team played well enough, just leave em in the game till the second quarter. Let em fight for that spot. Honestly if Bo did this I would care if we lost the damn game to a horrible SMiss team. It's all about the Big10 title for us. Colorado played those brutal OOC schedules but come conference time they were well tested.

[True2tRA]

You play like you practice is my cliche axiom. If dudes are pussyfooting around at practice and the coaches are letting it slide, we will be in store for a bumpy ride this season. Players cannot expect to just go half ass through the motions at practice then magically amp it to 1000 volts come game day, bad mentality to have as a player, even worse for coaches to foster. I have heard that Jake Cotton is one nasty SOB at practice, maybe just maybe Bo should let guys go full speed, suit up, knock each other out then truly find out who exactly on this team has heart. We may not be stacked with 5 star recruits but focus and resiliency can equalize a 3 star and 5 star guy. The Huskers I grew up watching didn't crumble when they got punched in the jaw, where is that team? Better yet where is that mentality?

We heard all the stories about McBride getting upset at a lack of effort in practice and simply grabbing the next player and giving him the shot to earn his place. Maybe we don't have enough competition in practice. Too many guaranteed spots...

 

Hell sit the entire first string this saturday for the first series. See if that doesn't get them ready to play...and if the 2nd team played well enough, just leave em in the game till the second quarter. Let em fight for that spot. Honestly if Bo did this I would care if we lost the damn game to a horrible SMiss team. It's all about the Big10 title for us. Colorado played those brutal OOC schedules but come conference time they were well tested.

 

I agree with both of you. +1. Some people think this mentality is overrated. It's not a " we are Nebraska" mentality like some think. It's a commitment to excellence. It's a commitment to your teammates that you're going to give your best and you expect their best in return. Never in my life did I think after game one of the season I would hear these quotes from players. I've heard it now and I'm disappointed. Clearly though, Abdullah is extremely disappointed as well, more than I could possibly be. This guy, lives works, sweats, bleeds and trusts these guys. I don't know any of them. I've gone through nothing with them. I can only hope these guys respect Ameer enough to heed his words. These guys are supposed to be brothers.

[Bowfin]

Hell sit the entire first string this saturday for the first series.

 

Agreed. Pull names out of a hat from 2nd String to Scout team until all the positions are filled. Maybe have a drawing of a seat number and that fan gets to coach the defense for the first series as well (What's good for the goose is good for the gander).

 

Our present standard is something less than a ten yard average on first down, so that should give the random participants an achievable goal.

[RedDenver]

Every team seems to have at least one game they come out flat. Hopefully we survived ours and it doesn't happen again.

 

Is it usually the opener? And it happens to the Huskers more than once a year.

I'm not saying it's correct or that we haven't had problems with it under Bo. I'm just saying that it's only one game, and that's pretty normal for college teams. If there's a second or third, then I'll start to be concerned.

 

the last few years --- the last 6 years --- the NU team is unfocused in more games than not. And, in those games where the focus is there, more often than not, it was not initially there that game but was generated in that game by situation... desperation yielded that focus because they got behind (against teams they would not have gotten behind had the initial intensity and focus been there).

 

The point is this... you say this was one game where insufficient focus and intensity was an issue and you say "see if it continues." I counter by saying that NU has come out flat and unfocused (or lost focus during a game) in probably 60-70% of all the games they have played under Pelini in the past 6 years. The team has been out-hustled by their opponents regularly and displayed less intensity than their opponents more often than not. This is not a "one game" thing --- an opening game issue many teams have --- it is pattern performance that characterizes the team.

Well, you're certainly entitled to your opinion. IMO NU is flat about twice a year under Pelini. That's about how often TO's teams were flat as well. The "the coaches aren't getting them pumped up for the game" argument has been around as long as football, and I don't buy it. Players are about excitement and fire, and I find it difficult to believe that 18-23 year olds need old men to get them jacked to play.

[RedDenver]

Hell sit the entire first string this saturday for the first series.

 

Agreed. Pull names out of a hat from 2nd String to Scout team until all the positions are filled. Maybe have a drawing of a seat number and that fan gets to coach the defense for the first series as well (What's good for the goose is good for the gander).

 

Our present standard is something less than a ten yard average on first down, so that should give the random participants an achievable goal.

Yep, start randomly selecting players to be the starters. That'll surely make things better by making competition during practice meaningless. Brilliant!!

[Takeitsleazy]

Bo knows Defense.

[skersfan]

Well if he does, make he could break it out so we could all see it.

[Takeitsleazy]

I guess I am terrible at sarcasm over the interweb, need to use some emojis. The offense will win us the games this year, like last year, so most likely same result of last year. Not negative, I would love us to win every game and ride into the candycane forest on a group of reindeer. BUT I AM A REALIST. DEFENSE IS NOT AND HAS NOT BEEN ON SUH LEVEL FOR SOMETIME. So basically we either can't recruit, have average at best defensive coaches, or both.

[Bowfin]

Yep, start randomly selecting players to be the starters. That'll surely make things better by making competition during practice meaningless. Brilliant!!

 

If we keep playing players who are not excited to be playing, and who lose focus while taking plays and series off, or as Turner says, "laid down and didn't bring the fight", then we are making things worse because that makes actual performance in the game meaningless. Here's the mathematical equation for that, hope it helps:

 

Game Day Performance > Practice Performance

 

Because, (and here is the brilliant part) the following is true: No one goes to a bowl game or moves up in the rankings based on how they "practice". Because in the end, it's how you play on Saturday, not how you practice on Tuesday, that determines success or lack thereof.

[HuskerShark]

By now you've probably heard that Ameer Abdullah addressed the team after the game Saturday night. Jamal Turner gives us an idea what was said:

 

It wasn’t just what Abdullah said, according to wide receiver Jamal Turner. It was the way he said it.

 

 

“Really mad,” Turner said of Abdullah’s passion. “To tears."

 

Turner said players didn’t bring enough passion to the field against a Wyoming team that was 4-8 last season.

 

“There wasn’t that much energy. It was a weird deal. You would think it’s the opener and guys would be jacked,” Turner said. “Sometimes, we laid down. We weren't bringing the fight back.”

 

Brian Christopherson's article

 

The crowd didn't bring much energy either. That probably didn't help.

 

And I'm sorry, but our tunnel walk does nothing for me anymore. Our crowd doesn't get loud at all for it.

 

For a game against Wyoming? Not really.

 

For a conference game against Michigan, NW, tOSU, or Wisconsin? I bet it's pretty damn loud.

[RedDenver]

Yep, start randomly selecting players to be the starters. That'll surely make things better by making competition during practice meaningless. Brilliant!!

 

If we keep playing players who are not excited to be playing, and who lose focus while taking plays and series off, or as Turner says, "laid down and didn't bring the fight", then we are making things worse because that makes actual performance in the game meaningless. Here's the mathematical equation for that, hope it helps:

 

Game Day Performance > Practice Performance

 

Because, (and here is the brilliant part) the following is true: No one goes to a bowl game or moves up in the rankings based on how they "practice". Because in the end, it's how you play on Saturday, not how you practice on Tuesday, that determines success or lack thereof.

Perhaps you missed what you wrote: " Pull names out of a hat from 2nd String to Scout team until all the positions are filled."

 

I'm pointing out how stupid that statement is with sarcasm.

[Hooked on Huskers]

Hunter:

 

Oh yeah. Given my age, my dad's Huskers did not have helmets --- they had those padded ear-muff things --- and were called Bug-eaters.

skull-to-skull targeting penalty ???

[irafreak]

Hell sit the entire first string this saturday for the first series.

 

Agreed. Pull names out of a hat from 2nd String to Scout team until all the positions are filled. Maybe have a drawing of a seat number and that fan gets to coach the defense for the first series as well (What's good for the goose is good for the gander).

 

Our present standard is something less than a ten yard average on first down, so that should give the random participants an achievable goal.

Yep, start randomly selecting players to be the starters. That'll surely make things better by making competition during practice meaningless. Brilliant!!

That's the point. Appartently there is no competition in practice. I'm telling you, McBride and TO would have sat guys that didn't give their all on game day. These kind of quotes are unacceptable in any game much less the season opener. If I were second team and the coach said the job's yours to earn right now on the field, I'd be going all out. You play like you practice.

 

You ever see players that excel at practice but can't put the pieces together on the field. It's gameday results that matter and saturday night was a joke if the players really did play like they are saying.

[irafreak]

Yep, start randomly selecting players to be the starters. That'll surely make things better by making competition during practice meaningless. Brilliant!!

 

If we keep playing players who are not excited to be playing, and who lose focus while taking plays and series off, or as Turner says, "laid down and didn't bring the fight", then we are making things worse because that makes actual performance in the game meaningless. Here's the mathematical equation for that, hope it helps:

 

Game Day Performance > Practice Performance

 

Because, (and here is the brilliant part) the following is true: No one goes to a bowl game or moves up in the rankings based on how they "practice". Because in the end, it's how you play on Saturday, not how you practice on Tuesday, that determines success or lack thereof.

Perhaps you missed what you wrote: " Pull names out of a hat from 2nd String to Scout team until all the positions are filled."

 

I'm pointing out how stupid that statement is with sarcasm.

It's not really a stupid statement...it's making a statement. You don't think the first team would be embarrased to sit out a series or two and watch the backups play with more passion? It's called lighting a fire under their ass.