Bye Bye Watson

[MCAT800]

This one hurt, real bad. And this offenses production all year has been horrible, but changing coordinators only hurts in recruiting and continuity.

TO learned and I believe Watson can to.

 

[sd'sker]

This one hurt, real bad. And this offenses production all year has been horrible, but changing coordinators only hurts in recruiting and continuity.

TO learned and I believe Watson can to.

i would like to think that our 'o' troubles are because of the o-line, but it seems so much worse. i would not be surprised to see Wats back, hopefully he can figure out what works and coach up the players to be able to succeed like they did last year. something has gone seriously awry.

 

[Paul in WI]

Does anyone on this board still believe Watson is the answer for our offense? I would be really interested to hear one of his supporters explain his playcalling tonight, especially the lack of passes all night long.

lol, go talk to HuskerTrucker. Im sure he'll come up with some excuse as to why Nebraska absolutely needs to keep Watson

i can explain his lack of passes, he did not want to give up interceptions. the 'o' had to keep the ball and waste time, that is all you can expect from this 'o'.

Yes, I agree with you that that is all you can expect from this 'o'. But the fact that this is all we can expect from this 'o' goes back to Watson, he is the offensive coordinator. No, I dont expect our offense to be world beaters but we've had too many offensive performances this year that have been downright pathetic (Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas). That falls on the man with the 6 figure salary (Watson) & he's gotta go

yeah, i was not making excuses, i was just saying that if the 'o' does not turnover the ball and gets a few first downs, well then they had a good game. something is seriously wrong with this 'o' and it does need to be fixed. i think bo and TO will have a long (or short) conversation of how to fix it. i do not think bo wants to fire anyone, he just wants to coach, but TO will give him sound advice of how to manage his staff. (it would be hard to manage a staff for the first time, especially when bo's specialty is coaching, not necessarily managing)

If I'm Bo Pelini and I think that your performance is costing me my bonus for getting to a BCS bowl, I'm not going to be nice to you. You're taking money out of my pocket, and even if you're the nicest guy in the world, I'm going to drop you on your head for someone that I think can get me that payday. Nothing personal. Business is business.

 

[sd'sker]

Does anyone on this board still believe Watson is the answer for our offense? I would be really interested to hear one of his supporters explain his playcalling tonight, especially the lack of passes all night long.

lol, go talk to HuskerTrucker. Im sure he'll come up with some excuse as to why Nebraska absolutely needs to keep Watson

i can explain his lack of passes, he did not want to give up interceptions. the 'o' had to keep the ball and waste time, that is all you can expect from this 'o'.

Yes, I agree with you that that is all you can expect from this 'o'. But the fact that this is all we can expect from this 'o' goes back to Watson, he is the offensive coordinator. No, I dont expect our offense to be world beaters but we've had too many offensive performances this year that have been downright pathetic (Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas). That falls on the man with the 6 figure salary (Watson) & he's gotta go

yeah, i was not making excuses, i was just saying that if the 'o' does not turnover the ball and gets a few first downs, well then they had a good game. something is seriously wrong with this 'o' and it does need to be fixed. i think bo and TO will have a long (or short) conversation of how to fix it. i do not think bo wants to fire anyone, he just wants to coach, but TO will give him sound advice of how to manage his staff. (it would be hard to manage a staff for the first time, especially when bo's specialty is coaching, not necessarily managing)

If I'm Bo Pelini and I think that your performance is costing me my bonus for getting to a BCS bowl, I'm not going to be nice to you. You're taking money out of my pocket, and even if you're the nicest guy in the world, I'm going to drop you on your head for someone that I think can get me that payday. Nothing personal. Business is business.

i just don't think it is that simple. there is the human element and the relationships formed (remember how hard it was for Solich to fire his coaches) and bo relied heavily on Wats' offense last year. also, we were pretty excited that he was staying to establish the new team.

i do not even have an opinion about what is needed to be done to fix the offense, but i am sure it is something weighing heavily on the minds of bo, TO, and wats.

 

[HuskerT]

Seems to me like Watson needs to focus on running one type of offense and doing it well rather than trying to run four different types of offense and being mediocre or bad at all of them. I understand mixing it up sometimes, but what he's doing is confusing everybody, but the opposing defenses.

 

[ronsss]

Does anyone on this board still believe Watson is the answer for our offense? I would be really interested to hear one of his supporters explain his playcalling tonight, especially the lack of passes all night long.

lol, go talk to HuskerTrucker. Im sure he'll come up with some excuse as to why Nebraska absolutely needs to keep Watson

i can explain his lack of passes, he did not want to give up interceptions. the 'o' had to keep the ball and waste time, that is all you can expect from this 'o'.

Yes, I agree with you that that is all you can expect from this 'o'. But the fact that this is all we can expect from this 'o' goes back to Watson, he is the offensive coordinator. No, I dont expect our offense to be world beaters but we've had too many offensive performances this year that have been downright pathetic (Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas). That falls on the man with the 6 figure salary (Watson) & he's gotta go

yeah, i was not making excuses, i was just saying that if the 'o' does not turnover the ball and gets a few first downs, well then they had a good game. something is seriously wrong with this 'o' and it does need to be fixed. i think bo and TO will have a long (or short) conversation of how to fix it. i do not think bo wants to fire anyone, he just wants to coach, but TO will give him sound advice of how to manage his staff. (it would be hard to manage a staff for the first time, especially when bo's specialty is coaching, not necessarily managing)

If I'm Bo Pelini and I think that your performance is costing me my bonus for getting to a BCS bowl, I'm not going to be nice to you. You're taking money out of my pocket, and even if you're the nicest guy in the world, I'm going to drop you on your head for someone that I think can get me that payday. Nothing personal. Business is business.

if watson was so bad,,,why would the alabama coach try to hire him... the offense does really stink,,,not sure what the problem is , could be the players, not good enough. ....but it all starts in the line,, if the line cannot move the oppostion, nothing will happen...you can have the best back in the world, but no line, he is worthless.......nu just does not have enough playmakers either, no standout tight end, no wide reciever that is great,. qb is not hiesman material, i backs don, t get many yards. ....but the offensive line , at times play bad, i saw one play , the texas guy just blew in on lee, and the nu lineman was standing there not quarding anyone... nu,s defense is definitly on the up, penili needs to deal with the offense.

 

[BigBL87]

I'm not one to criticize playcalling, but I was trying to figure out why we didn't pass until 3rd down when we started with a 1st and goal from the 10 late in the game. You have the momentum after a huge special teams play, you run with it. You don't slow the game down.

 

[Paul in WI]

Does anyone on this board still believe Watson is the answer for our offense? I would be really interested to hear one of his supporters explain his playcalling tonight, especially the lack of passes all night long.

lol, go talk to HuskerTrucker. Im sure he'll come up with some excuse as to why Nebraska absolutely needs to keep Watson

i can explain his lack of passes, he did not want to give up interceptions. the 'o' had to keep the ball and waste time, that is all you can expect from this 'o'.

Yes, I agree with you that that is all you can expect from this 'o'. But the fact that this is all we can expect from this 'o' goes back to Watson, he is the offensive coordinator. No, I dont expect our offense to be world beaters but we've had too many offensive performances this year that have been downright pathetic (Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas). That falls on the man with the 6 figure salary (Watson) & he's gotta go

yeah, i was not making excuses, i was just saying that if the 'o' does not turnover the ball and gets a few first downs, well then they had a good game. something is seriously wrong with this 'o' and it does need to be fixed. i think bo and TO will have a long (or short) conversation of how to fix it. i do not think bo wants to fire anyone, he just wants to coach, but TO will give him sound advice of how to manage his staff. (it would be hard to manage a staff for the first time, especially when bo's specialty is coaching, not necessarily managing)

If I'm Bo Pelini and I think that your performance is costing me my bonus for getting to a BCS bowl, I'm not going to be nice to you. You're taking money out of my pocket, and even if you're the nicest guy in the world, I'm going to drop you on your head for someone that I think can get me that payday. Nothing personal. Business is business.

if watson was so bad,,,why would the alabama coach try to hire him... the offense does really stink,,,not sure what the problem is , could be the players, not good enough. ....but it all starts in the line,, if the line cannot mover the oppostion, nothing will happen...you can have the best back in the world, but no line, he is worthless.

I addressed this in my long post further up. Here, rather than get in a circular conversation, I'll just post it again. It addresses everything that you question. If you'd like to disagree with me on those points, feel free and we'll discuss them, but I'm not going to go around in circles:

Nebraska is one of the premier names in college football. This isn't a cellar-dweller school with low expectations. As such, one can expect a certain level of performance and competence from its players and its coaches. A totally-inept offense falls entirely on the coaching staff. Why not the players? I'll tell you why: The coaching staff recruits those players as well as coaches them. These are their players that they recruited and selected for their system. Their players are only playing to the level of coaching that they received (see Defense).

Anyone who thinks that it is tolerable for Nebraska's offense to be the laughingstock of Division I football for even ONE year does not know the expectations for championship football. If this defense was not what it was, we might have lost ALL of our Big 12 games this year. You can thank the Pelini brothers' defensive genius for saving this season for us.

For those of you that think Watson's or any other offensive coach's job is safe after this season's performances, you're completely naive. High-level people are going to have to fall on their swords after this season ends. These types of offensive performances are absolutely inexcusable at Nebraska or any other Division I school for that matter. A poor performance here and there can be tolerated, but it is absolutely inexcusable for the offense to play like this through virtually all of our conference schedule. This is a big business--not HS football. People don't get second and third chances.

If our offense would have even been "competent" this year, we would be playing in a BCS bowl right now, either after beating Texas or as an at-large selection. We might even be playing for a national championship. Don't you think Bo is thinking that very same thing? Hmm.....what to do....what to do.....

 

[HuskerT]

I'm not one to criticize playcalling, but I was trying to figure out why we didn't pass until 3rd down when we started with a 1st and goal from the 10 late in the game. You have the momentum after a huge special teams play, you run with it. You don't slow the game down.

I think that series was the most frustrating thing about this game. Run up the middle on 1st down, run up the middle on 2nd down and a predictable pass on an obvious passing down. Zero creativity. I almost ripped my TV off the wall at that point.

 

[HUSKER 37]

for the record i've never liked watson. i was p.o.'d when bo kept him here. he may be a smart offensive mind, but it will never work for nebraska football. we simply can't recruit the type of players to make it possible. when you can't learn the playbook until your junior season, then you need top recruiting classes every single year to have any offensive production. we need an alabama style of offense and thats final

Funny you should mention Bamer..

If only Watson would've accepted Saban's offer..and had those recruits to work with..He could be facing Texass in the MNC game.

I too was a little disappointed we were keeping anything that had Callahan's cooties on it..and was never impressed with the corn-coast offense...But I was hoping we could get at least one more year outa Wats..So someone like Frost could get one more year of seasoning at Oregon and then make more of an impact as our OC. :dunno

Something else that has concerned me lately.

When Cally was here, it seemed like we pretty much ignored recruiting for the Defense and even persuaded some of our best "Athletes" to switch to the O side of the ball after they got here.

I wonder if we are now doing the opposite with the Pelinis???

Is Osborne well enough to take the OC job for a year? He looked a little frail tonight.

 

[Paul in WI]

for the record i've never liked watson. i was p.o.'d when bo kept him here. he may be a smart offensive mind, but it will never work for nebraska football. we simply can't recruit the type of players to make it possible. when you can't learn the playbook until your junior season, then you need top recruiting classes every single year to have any offensive production. we need an alabama style of offense and thats final

Funny you should mention Bamer..

If only Watson would've accepted Saban's offer..and had those recruits to work with..He could be facing Texass in the MNC game.

I too was a little disappointed we were keeping anything that had Callahan's cooties on it..and was never impressed with the corn-coast offense...But I was hoping we could get at least one more year outa Wats..So someone like Frost could get one more year of seasoning at Oregon and then make more of an impact as our OC. :dunno

Something else that has concerned me lately.

When Cally was here, it seemed like we pretty much ignored recruiting for the Defense and even persuaded some of our best "Athletes" to switch to the O side of the ball after they got here.

 

I wonder if we are now doing the opposite with the Pelinis???

Is Osborne well enough to take the OC job for a year? He looked a little frail tonight.

I don't think so. Washington came over to offense as one example that I can think of off the top of my head.

 

[cornhuskersftw]

If Watson stays, he needs to throw his big a*s playbook in the trash. Stick with what works and realize that college offenses don't have the time to learn and master all those plays and that we can't recruit the talent to make the WCO successful. We can't compete with the likes of Texas, USC, Florida, etc. Once we get an OC that realizes that or once Watson gets his crap together, our offense will once again succeed.

 

[HUSKER 37]

for the record i've never liked watson. i was p.o.'d when bo kept him here. he may be a smart offensive mind, but it will never work for nebraska football. we simply can't recruit the type of players to make it possible. when you can't learn the playbook until your junior season, then you need top recruiting classes every single year to have any offensive production. we need an alabama style of offense and thats final

Funny you should mention Bamer..

If only Watson would've accepted Saban's offer..and had those recruits to work with..He could be facing Texass in the MNC game.

I too was a little disappointed we were keeping anything that had Callahan's cooties on it..and was never impressed with the corn-coast offense...But I was hoping we could get at least one more year outa Wats..So someone like Frost could get one more year of seasoning at Oregon and then make more of an impact as our OC. :dunno

Something else that has concerned me lately.

When Cally was here, it seemed like we pretty much ignored recruiting for the Defense and even persuaded some of our best "Athletes" to switch to the O side of the ball after they got here.

 

I wonder if we are now doing the opposite with the Pelinis???

Is Osborne well enough to take the OC job for a year? He looked a little frail tonight.

I don't think so. Washington came over to offense as one example that I can think of off the top of my head.

Speaking of....What ever happened to Cody Glen?

The player switch was a minor part of the point I was trying to make..and there's almost always a need for some of that to occur (losing two QB's to start off the season for example)..But still..I wonder if the Defensive coaches get "first dibs" on who we go after. (recruit wise)

 

[zoogs]

You mean like how Cally kept Prince at CB even though he wanted to be RB?

I don't think Cally neglected defensive recruiting by any means...but his job was focused on the offense. We're recruiting a lot on D now, I think, because we're going to be missing a lot of players on D and that's how the scholarships have fallen.

I don't think Bo is doing the opposite either.

 

[Radioactive Man]

Does anyone on this board still believe Watson is the answer for our offense? I would be really interested to hear one of his supporters explain his playcalling tonight, especially the lack of passes all night long.

I thought it was pretty obvious. Lee is perhaps the most inaccurate passer I've ever seen on a major team. Every time he puts the ball in the air, it's as likely to get intercepted as it is completed. Add that to the fact that NU lacked the speed to get to the edges and you're left with what we saw. I'm not a huge fan of Watson, but you can't run an offense that your personnel is not capable of executing.