da skers
Starter
I was pretty worried about the D last year. I feel much better this year. A lot of it has to do with the attitude around the locker room from last year.
Bo Pelini's Job Security Examined
- Thread starter knapplc
- Start date
B.B. Hemingway
All-American
As consistent (in a bad way, I guess) as Pelini has been, I do think he has shown the ability, and willingness to make changes/improvements. The hiring of Coach Kaz was a great example of that, given Kaz's philosophical differences in how a Dlineman should play. The recent surge in recruiting (2013,2014) has shown that he has began to make the necessary changes in recruiting. I think the change in conferences has been understated as a reason why the defense has struggled, and a reason why there has been a delay in getting over the hump as a program....
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kchusker_chris
All-American
That's good to hear. We were hearing rumblings of the same thing a few years ago on the offensive side of things. That turned out for the better.
Good to have ya back by the way - where ya been lately?
Saunders
Heisman Trophy Winner
da skers
Starter
Work just has me much more involved as well as the kids getting older and more involved and that just requires more of my free time. I assume its probably a temporary adjustment to the workflow as I'll learn to pawn more off to other people I manage. Good problem to have.
kchusker_chris
All-American
B.B. Hemingway
All-American
So if you don't win a national title in the first 5 years of coaching at a school you never will? That's dreadful, and empty logic by a very talented writer....
da skers
Starter
You can just see it in the guys's eyes and how they talk about things. There's a lot more energy there in the Dline and LB's than last year. Plus you can tell the other guys have more confidence in them this year. Part of it is probably the fact they are running more 1 gap like they did in high school so they are confident. The one player everyone was most excited for was Randle. He's healthy and doing things he's supposed to do. If he stays that way I think we'll be very happy with him this year. But there were probably 4 different players or coaches thats said something about him when I went through a few weeks ago.
Saunders
Heisman Trophy Winner
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Heisman Trophy Winner
EZ-E
All-American
If we were still in the Big 12 and our program was at around 9-10 wins and no conference title yet, I could see somewhat where the writer was coming from.
I was one of them, and I was wrong in thinking we would roll through the Big Ten with little issue. With the personel on the roster, and dealing with losing a guy that had something like 13? sacks the year before from the DT position the year before to injury, we did well our first year in The Big Ten having to prepare for a different opponent each week that we had never seen. Does anyone know how many linebackers we recruited between 08-10 before we knew we were going to the Big Ten? I remember off the top of my head 5? David, Compton, Fisher, Santos, Williams (left program) and Whaley???? I rewatched the 09 conference championship game the other night and at times we played with 7 DBs on the field. I believe we called it the diesal package. Anthony West would pick up Newton out of the backfield and was at times the only LB on the field. AND HE WASN'T A LB!!!! I remember looking at stats last year and IIRC, KSU was the only team that ran the football remotely close to as many times as any other BIG Team. I am happy with how rapidly the coaching staff has begun to shift the style of play and the defensive players we recruit to suit the football teams that we play. Our linebackers will be a strength in the years to come rather than a liability as they were last year.
The Big Ten is now really starting to pick up and the gap between our conference and the SEC is closing. Make no mistakes, the athletes were on the roster to beat Georgia last year guys. We had every opportunity to beat them as we did South Carolina the year before. Funny how each game turned with an Ameer fumble. What would be the feeling on this board had we beat Georgia? We would be talking MNC run. To further my point, NW beat an SEC team in their Bowl Game, Michigan had every chance to beat South Carolina, and the funny thing about this whole thing is that everybody was playing one bowl game up from where they should have been. In all actuality, our conferences best team was in the Club House come bowl season and another team in Penn State that would have been a tough draw for any team was doing the same.
I completely agree with Bo on his thoughts about the SEC. Bama is absolutely the best program in CFB currently, but lets not for one minute think that every team in that conference is Bama.
I was one of them, and I was wrong in thinking we would roll through the Big Ten with little issue. With the personel on the roster, and dealing with losing a guy that had something like 13? sacks the year before from the DT position the year before to injury, we did well our first year in The Big Ten having to prepare for a different opponent each week that we had never seen. Does anyone know how many linebackers we recruited between 08-10 before we knew we were going to the Big Ten? I remember off the top of my head 5? David, Compton, Fisher, Santos, Williams (left program) and Whaley???? I rewatched the 09 conference championship game the other night and at times we played with 7 DBs on the field. I believe we called it the diesal package. Anthony West would pick up Newton out of the backfield and was at times the only LB on the field. AND HE WASN'T A LB!!!! I remember looking at stats last year and IIRC, KSU was the only team that ran the football remotely close to as many times as any other BIG Team. I am happy with how rapidly the coaching staff has begun to shift the style of play and the defensive players we recruit to suit the football teams that we play. Our linebackers will be a strength in the years to come rather than a liability as they were last year.
The Big Ten is now really starting to pick up and the gap between our conference and the SEC is closing. Make no mistakes, the athletes were on the roster to beat Georgia last year guys. We had every opportunity to beat them as we did South Carolina the year before. Funny how each game turned with an Ameer fumble. What would be the feeling on this board had we beat Georgia? We would be talking MNC run. To further my point, NW beat an SEC team in their Bowl Game, Michigan had every chance to beat South Carolina, and the funny thing about this whole thing is that everybody was playing one bowl game up from where they should have been. In all actuality, our conferences best team was in the Club House come bowl season and another team in Penn State that would have been a tough draw for any team was doing the same.
I completely agree with Bo on his thoughts about the SEC. Bama is absolutely the best program in CFB currently, but lets not for one minute think that every team in that conference is Bama.
The Dude
Heisman Trophy Winner
da skers
Starter
And thats just pretty much it. He hasn't done that. Its not like the year Carl and Bo (mostly Carl) were talking about how great the dline was and we stunk it up. He's not said much about them other they are young and athletic and they'll need to find guys who can play. He even called out VV at media days which is huge because that means the kid has huge upside and for those that know the two understand the motivation behind it. If you haven't noticed they are usually pretty quite about an area when they feel better about it. He's been pretty hush about things.