Andy Staples' early, early, early, early pre-season Top 25

HuskerfaninOkieland

HuskerfaninOkieland

Heisman Trophy Winner
15. Nebraska Cornhuskers

Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh is gone, but Suh has said for months that he thinks rising junior tackle Jared Crick might turn out to be better. That's a terrifying prospect for Big 12 North quarterbacks. The question mark for the Cornhuskers is their offense, which was downright miserable at times this past season. It remains to be seen whether surgically repaired Zac Lee or Cody Green will start at quarterback, but if the Huskers can move the ball, they're going to be tough to beat.

Andy Staples' Pre-season Top 25

 
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I think that description is spot on. Great find HuskerfaninOkieland

 
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I think Andy's ranking is closer to where we belong based on our offensive performance this year, but I think he'll be in the minority ranking us in the middle teens and we'll end up in the upper half of the top ten, most likely around 8-10.

 
knapplc said:
I think Andy's ranking is closer to where we belong based on our offensive performance this year, but I think he'll be in the minority ranking us in the middle teens and we'll end up in the upper half of the top ten, most likely around 8-10.
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I agree. I'd rather start between 10-15. Not a lot of pressure in that rank and gives us motivation to earn our way into a Top 5-10 ranking.

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
The trick, obviously, will be living up to a Top 10 preseason ranking.
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Agreed. Sometimes it's easier to sneak in unfavored and somewhat underrated, as with our games this year with OU, Texass, and even Arizona to some extent.

However, the days of cautious optimism and lowered expectations may be on their way out. Here's hoping!

:horns2

 
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
The trick, obviously, will be living up to a Top 10 preseason ranking.
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And some trick that will be. Was the bowl game offense what we could have always been with a healthy team or was it an aberration? Is Zac Lee suddenly going to blossom into the player he was hyped as out of JUCO? Will Green erupt into the next great young phenom? Or will both continue their stumbling around the offense they exhibited all year? Will our RBs return to glory or will they once again be derailed by injury? Will our WR corps suddenly leap forward with pass-catching ability heretofore unseen, or was 2009 the apex of their skill?

There are so many questions on offense that I don't see justification for a top ten ranking, whether we return 10 starters or not. Ten starters returning from an underachieving unit is hardly cause for aisle-dancing, methinks.

We could be good next year. But nothing we've seen says we will be.

 
If I may be a little bit cranky....

I'm not buying that the Huskers' or Zac Lee's chances are tied to an injury to his throwing arm. To my eye the problems had to do with the feet and the brain, and given mulitple chances to prove the doubters wrong, Zac never got significantly better over the course of the season. His arm was good enough to make a couple good passes in the Holiday Bowl, but even then it wasn't a break-out performance. Just a competent game from a nice guy with limited skills.

So I don't think our success in '10 hinges on getting a healthy Zac Lee back. I think there's a real danger of replaying this season with a Zac Lee who is as good as he's going to get, and a Cody Green who makes you yearn for the dull reliability of Zac Lee. While the fanbase is convinced any of the half-dozen untested phenoms should be handed the reigns.

I do think an improved and healthy offensive line could be a game-changer, as Zac's decision making ability in the pocket would be greatly aided by an extra second or two.

So there's no demonstrable reason to assume we perform better than #14. And it's a remarkable testemant to this year's D (and the Husker legacy) that a team with such miserable offensive stats ever got ranked that high.

 
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knapplc said:
HuskerfaninOkieland said:
The trick, obviously, will be living up to a Top 10 preseason ranking.
Click to expand...
And some trick that will be. Was the bowl game offense what we could have always been with a healthy team or was it an aberration? Is Zac Lee suddenly going to blossom into the player he was hyped as out of JUCO? Will Green erupt into the next great young phenom? Or will both continue their stumbling around the offense they exhibited all year? Will our RBs return to glory or will they once again be derailed by injury? Will our WR corps suddenly leap forward with pass-catching ability heretofore unseen, or was 2009 the apex of their skill?

There are so many questions on offense that I don't see justification for a top ten ranking, whether we return 10 starters or not. Ten starters returning from an underachieving unit is hardly cause for aisle-dancing, methinks.

We could be good next year. But nothing we've seen says we will be.
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I have to think...no...believe, that what the team did in the Holiday Bowl offensively had to have raised their confidence level tremendously which should, hopefully, carry over to spring ball and ultimately the season. I have to believe Bo will do what is necessary to make this offense finally start clicking. I really think injuries and attrition hurt us offensively. To many want to lay the blame on Watson but I find that hard to do when you consider how well we were offensively in 2008. Yeah we were ranked something like #6 in the Big 12 offensively but people tend to forget who was in front of us (TTU, OU, UT, KU, MU). We still finished highly ranked in the national stats rankings offensively. So I don't think the failures on offense were a result of coaching. But 2010 will answer a lot of those question I guess. If we struggle in 2010, then yes, coaching is the problem and Watson has just become a liability. If we see a continuation of what was produced in the Holiday Bowl, then I think 2009 will soon be forgotten.

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
If I may be a little bit cranky....

I'm not buying that the Huskers' or Zac Lee's chances are tied to an injury to his throwing arm. To my eye the problems had to do with the feet and the brain, and given mulitple chances to prove the doubters wrong, Zac never got significantly better over the course of the season. His arm was good enough to make a couple good passes in the Holiday Bowl, but even then it wasn't a break-out performance. Just a competent game from a nice guy with limited skills.

So I don't think our success in '10 hinges on getting a healthy Zac Lee back. I think there's a real danger of replaying this season with a Zac Lee who is as good as he's going to get, and a Cody Green who makes you yearn for the dull reliability of Zac Lee. While the fanbase is convinced any of the half-dozen untested phenoms should be handed the reigns.

I do think an improved and healthy offensive line could be a game-changer, as Zac's decision making ability in the pocket would be greatly aided by an extra second or two.

So there's no demonstrable reason to assume we perform better than #14. And it's a remarkable testemant to this year's D (and the Husker legacy) that a team with such miserable offensive stats ever got ranked that high.
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I think a lot of Zac's problems lay in the fact our O-line just plain sucked this year. Our RB's very seldom had an inside lane and Zac always seemed to be under pressure and never really had time to settle in the pocket.

 
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