10 Quick Thoughts on This Year and Next . . .

[NUance]

7. Beck will be just fine. This is his first year. There have been some missteps, but I am pleased with his direction.

I agree. Our offense stumbled yesterday. But quite a few of our drives ended because of things other than playcalling: 1) penalties; 2) dropped passes; 3) O-line break-downs. There's only so much an OC can do when these things keep cropping up every couple of plays.

8. The O-line feels like the Kevin Cosgrove defenses: We knew it would never get better until he was gone.

Wow, this is a painful comparison. Any sentence with "Cosgrove" in it is painful. Especially when it smacks of the truth. The thing is, we won't have a top-10 team until our line improves significantly. On both sides of the ball.

I don't understand this o-line bashing!? Is the o-line inconsistent at times? Yes. Have they plowed and created yards against top 10 defenses this year? YES!!!! We ran very well against Ohio St, Michigan St, and Penn St. C'mon people. And Martinez has had solid pass protection this year as well....The o-line isn't the biggest problem.

I dunno. I'd say O-line performance and WR pass dropping are our two biggest problems on offense this year. /jmho

 

[Spartness]

1. Pelini is too green (and too stubborn) as a coach to realize that he doesn't know everything. He needs to stop putting guys in his doghouse and just let them play (PJ, Jamaal Turner, Osborne).

2. No Jamaal Turner for the last month. Two losses. Hmmm . . . . just wondering if he might have helped (You think?)

3. Brady Hoke made Bo look like an amateur. Seriously.

4. My gut instinct is that the defense is worse this year because Bo gave full control to Carl. Carl's a nice guy, but he ain't Bo.

5. Tired of hoping for a few more recruits to make us better. Michigan didn't get any recruits and Hoke is just fine.

6. Pelini's "me against the Nebraska world" mentality is taking its toll. Unless he reverses ship, we'll never completely turn the corner.

7. Beck will be just fine. This is his first year. There have been some missteps, but I am pleased with his direction.

8. The O-line feels like the Kevin Cosgrove defenses: We knew it would never get better until he was gone.

9. How does a fiery coach like Pelini have teams that fail to play with fire?

10. If Les Miles retires within the next 5 years, Pelini will run into the arms of LSU (and I don't think I'll miss him).

Those who say it took TO 22 years to win a NC I fully hear you. So even though I feel at this point that Bo is a solid but not a great head coach, my feeling on that could change. After all, he's only been at the helm for just almost four years. We must keep an open mind on that. Those of you who are concerned that in his fourth year he has had two lopsided loses -- and I will admit it has bothered me some -- remember that TO had two lopsided loses in a row in the 1990 season to Oklahoma (not a great team) 45-10 and to Georgia Tech 45-21 in a major bowl. Like everyone else, I must control my emotions and give Bo more time.

 

[bshirt]

7. Beck will be just fine. This is his first year. There have been some missteps, but I am pleased with his direction.

I agree. Our offense stumbled yesterday. But quite a few of our drives ended because of things other than playcalling: 1) penalties; 2) dropped passes; 3) O-line break-downs. There's only so much an OC can do when these things keep cropping up every couple of plays.

8. The O-line feels like the Kevin Cosgrove defenses: We knew it would never get better until he was gone.

Wow, this is a painful comparison. Any sentence with "Cosgrove" in it is painful. Especially when it smacks of the truth. The thing is, we won't have a top-10 team until our line improves significantly. On both sides of the ball.

I don't understand this o-line bashing!? Is the o-line inconsistent at times? Yes. Have they plowed and created yards against top 10 defenses this year? YES!!!! We ran very well against Ohio St, Michigan St, and Penn St. C'mon people. And Martinez has had solid pass protection this year as well....The o-line isn't the biggest problem.

Sadly I totally disagree.

When marginal Dlines like NW & Michigan totally stuff our running game we've got a serious problem.

 

[Stickney]

I'll attempt to answer #9 --- and it is pure guess work to be sure. . . .

Sure Bo is fiery... but his team is rarely fired up. Why? My explanation is a possibility... but we really do not know. That said, what we do know is that NU typically plays flat, plays w/o passion, and is under-prepared, unfocused and certainly is among the nations biggest under achieving teams. We can only guess as to why...

You are likely on the right track here. I suspect Bo's "fire" is an emotional drain at times on others. If you always yell and scream at someone, human nature is to close off and shield oneself from that hostility. The yelling becomes less and less effective.

However, it is hard to know what the true story is with Bo. We only see one side of things, and I suspect he is far more nuanced than that demeanor suggests. His post-game PSU comments, I found rather enlightening. I wish he would speak like that far more often.

This team still seems to lack confidence or that killer instinct (call it swagger, call it leadership, whatever). I thought the OSU rally might change that, but it didn't.

 

[Stickney]

7. Beck will be just fine. This is his first year. There have been some missteps, but I am pleased with his direction.

I agree. Our offense stumbled yesterday. But quite a few of our drives ended because of things other than playcalling: 1) penalties; 2) dropped passes; 3) O-line break-downs. There's only so much an OC can do when these things keep cropping up every couple of plays.

8. The O-line feels like the Kevin Cosgrove defenses: We knew it would never get better until he was gone.

Wow, this is a painful comparison. Any sentence with "Cosgrove" in it is painful. Especially when it smacks of the truth. The thing is, we won't have a top-10 team until our line improves significantly. On both sides of the ball.

I don't understand this o-line bashing!? Is the o-line inconsistent at times? Yes. Have they plowed and created yards against top 10 defenses this year? YES!!!! We ran very well against Ohio St, Michigan St, and Penn St. C'mon people. And Martinez has had solid pass protection this year as well....The o-line isn't the biggest problem.

Sadly I totally disagree.

When marginal Dlines like NW & Michigan totally stuff our running game we've got a serious problem.

Well, the offense has been a roller coaster. I think all parts, at times, have performed poorly.

Further, Defenses all year have dared T-Mart and NU to beat them through the air and stacked 8 or 9 in the box. Simple math shows how that can be successful.

I am not an o-line expert, but I have tried to watch tape to evaluate and it is hard. I don't know the scheme called. I don't know if there was a correction due to a stunt. And, there have been as many missed blocks by TEs/WRs or bad reads by T-Mart or the RB as the O-line issues. So there is blame to go around.

That being said, I doubt there is a change with B Cotton, but I wouldn't be surprised either.

 

[majech]

1. Pelini is too green (and too stubborn) as a coach to realize that he doesn't know everything. He needs to stop putting guys in his doghouse and just let them play (PJ, Jamaal Turner, Osborne).

2. No Jamaal Turner for the last month. Two losses. Hmmm . . . . just wondering if he might have helped (You think?)

3. Brady Hoke made Bo look like an amateur. Seriously.

4. My gut instinct is that the defense is worse this year because Bo gave full control to Carl. Carl's a nice guy, but he ain't Bo.

5. Tired of hoping for a few more recruits to make us better. Michigan didn't get any recruits and Hoke is just fine.

6. Pelini's "me against the Nebraska world" mentality is taking its toll. Unless he reverses ship, we'll never completely turn the corner.

7. Beck will be just fine. This is his first year. There have been some missteps, but I am pleased with his direction.

8. The O-line feels like the Kevin Cosgrove defenses: We knew it would never get better until he was gone.

9. How does a fiery coach like Pelini have teams that fail to play with fire?

10. If Les Miles retires within the next 5 years, Pelini will run into the arms of LSU (and I don't think I'll miss him).

1) I'm ok with the doghouse, but I don't think Bo's doghouse has an exit. He needs to let guys out of the doghouse.

2) Could JT have made a difference? Sure. We lost a close game to NW. I could easily see JT making at least 1 difference making play were he used.

3) I know. Really worries me. How do we close the gap? We have a 3 year head start and are trailing 45-17???? Hoke inherited possibly the worst defense in the country and an offense full of player not suited for his system and we get woodshedded?

4) No idea what the situation is there. I put it more on losing Sanders. How are good secondary players for last season horrid this season?

5) I've never bought into the "hopes of recruiting" mindset. I'd rather focus on maximizing what we currently have. I think we have good players, but they aren't put in positions to take advantage of their talents. See JT, TMart, triplets, K Reed, etc....

6) Agree. He has a "hunter" mindset. NU should rarely be the hunter, we should be the hunted. Big difference.

7) Really worried long term. Fundamentals are highly improved from last season. Philosophy may have actually gotten worse. I don't think we'll go anywhere significant with our mad-scientist mentality on offense. We still won't stick with what works and are very inefficient on offense. I attribute a lot of that to Bo's philosophy, but Beck doesn't seem to be helping and he does call the plays.

8) Can't put Barney in the Cosgrove category, but I see what you are saying. I gave him benefit of the doubt this year as I thought a lot of past failure was on Wats, but our blocking schemes, especially lately, have been getting WORKED. Seems that any half-way intelligent DC, dominates the schemes in the trenches.

9) I'll take consistent and methodical over firery any day. Players get used to constant fire. Ever seen a parent that yells at their kids all the time? Has zero impact. Then watch a parent that never yells, raise their voice a little...fear of god usually results.

10) Not bashing Bo at all here, but what has he done to make LSU come calling?