Freshmen

Cody has proven to be a very nice surprise. But I doubt the staff felt he could consitently over come the shortcomings of the Oline.

 
I do not know where this number 1 class came from. The highest I ever heard was 3. The recruiting class was good no question. But it did not compare to a lot of others in quality. The main reason we were so high was becasue of numbers.
Anyone can run the ball. Not a great learning curve in that.

My concern is we do not have a QB back up that has played a down. If Zac gets hurt it appears to me the season and any chance of a bowl game is over. Not good.

If Leon was the player most think he is, he would be playing running back and starting. The coaches know the true abilities. We do not have AP or RB setting on the bench no matter how hard some want to believe that. We have good to above average freshman, not world beaters. Not saying they will not turn into that, but now they are more of a liablity than anything else.

As I stated earlier, top programs do not depend on Freshman and Jucos to turn the program around. We have to. But only so much can be done.

I do not think it has anything to do with the play book. That has been blown out of the water so many times it is a joke. Listen to what the team says and the coaches and you would understand they have a large play book, but only use certain plays for each game, not the whole book. I doubt anyone on the team knows the whole play book at this time.
Click to expand...
Like I said, I agree with alot of what you said, and its time to get these kids PT. Not that they should start or take the majority of the reps, but maybe get them 10-20 plays per game.

I dont think bc's job is in jeopardy, yet. The bowl streak is over, so if they were to collapse and miss one this year, I dont think people would be as upset.

Also, as far as the playbook is concerned, sure they only use a small portion of it for any given week. But, if it is as big as advertised, there are 2 problems:

1) Either they work the majority of the plays, and dont get them down, or

2) The team doesnt practice certain plays much, and they are then thrust upon them during a one-week period, possibly making them confusing.

Just my .02.

 
I think the reason that there is not as many freshmen that are playing is that they are simply not ready. Through the emergence of these internet recruiting services, fans are able to see these high school players as they never had before. You add in the fact that someone is giving them a rating, predicting how that are going to be as a college player and you have a mess. People have unreal expectations about these kids, I'm sure many of the "high star" guys will turn out to be very good players, but many figure that just because they are supposed to be very good they will make an immediate impact. The jump to division 1 football from high school is tremendous. My main point is expecting these freshmen to have a huge impact right away is a little rediculous, they didn't give themselves the stars, some guys with a computer did, I believe many of them will turn into very good players, but just are not ready yet. As fas as getting them in for experience and "building" if they are not read outting them in and having them get beat or even hurt is going to do nothing for their confidence.

Just my thoughts
Click to expand...
I agree. While recruiting is very important, these recruiting services sometimes do more harm than good. These guys are as inaccurate as weathermen, and there is almost no way to tell if a player is going to pan out.

IMO, the recruiting services are way overrated.

Tom Lemming had Nebraska's class ranked # 1.
Click to expand...
No offense, but Lemming is the biggest joke in recruiting.

 
I agree Lemming is a little biased and probably not one of the better recruiting sources, he was, however, the one recruiting service that had Barry Turner rated fairly high (#5 or 6 in the nation I believe) that is the thing about these services, they can't possibly truely understand just how good each and every athlete really is, that is why it is fine to check them and read what they have to say, but take them with a grain of salt, the only real way to evaluate how good they are going to be is to let them get into the system and see how they compare to the other players on the team, then see how they progress. This is not to say these player and team rankings are worthless (I would rather have 4 and 5 star players and be in the top 10 than not) however there is no way to predict how much some players (that may have not shown "great" potential in high school) will be in college.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It seems to me Callahan is a little cautious playing the new guys. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but I have to assume Coach Callahan is playing the players he feels gives the huskers the best chance of winning. We could very easily have six wins already so Callahan is doing something right. Although we certainly need help on offense and defense we have seen significant improvement in all three areas of the team.

 
Look, if Calahan wanted to lose games, we would have lost them all by now. It's not hard to do.

I'm sure he's thinking about the future. Not only for the recruits/players/freshmen/redshirts sake, but his own, too.

If I were a coach, I'd definitely use sparingly some great young players -

1 to avoid injury

2 gain experience

3 to give them a better oppertunity to shine in the future.

I've you've got young great offensive backs...... why waste them on a year where your oline isn't championship material?

Esepcially this relates to Beck, I think.

Especially especially if Beck could start next year....

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I know that this is an old thread, but it was discussed on "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" the other day that maybe NU should start playing some of these true freshman. They have already burned the redshirt, but have not been seeing the field much, for the most part. Since NU no longer controls their own destiny in the North and would need some help to win it, would ya'll want to see these guys get some PT and build for the future, even if it means a loss or two.
I think it would be in the programs best interest to do so :thumbs Discuss!
Click to expand...
Since NU no longer controls their own destiny in the North and would need some help to win it
Click to expand...
That's not entirely true. NU does control it's own destiny still. Heck, even if KSU wins it's remaining games, it could still make the BIG12 title game, and they are 1-3 at the moment in the Big12

IF CU beats Missouri and then wins all it's remaining games except against NU, their overal record will be 8-3.

If Missouri wins out except their game against CU, they will be 8-3 as well.

If NU wins out its remaining games, they will be 9-2

Now regardless of your record in the division, the FIRST TIEBREAKER rule clearly states the following when you have 3 teams tied with the same conference record (in this case, NU, MU, CU would all be tied with a conference record of 6-2)

The records of the three teams will be compared against each other;

The records of the three teams will be compared within their division;

The records of the three teams will be compared against the next highest placed teams in their division in order of finish - 4, 5 and 6;

The records of the three teams will be compared against all common conference opponents;

The highest ranked team in the first Bowl Championship Series Poll following the completion of Big 12 regular-season (intra-) conference play shall be the representative;

The team with the best overall winning percentage [excluding exempted games - e.g. 12th games such as Kickoff Classic, Pigskin Classic, Hawaii, etc.] shall be the representative;

The representative will be chosen by draw.

Since NU is 9-2, Missouri and CU are 8-3, Nebraska would win the first tiebreaker when the records of all 3 of them are compared against each other. Because the language in the tiebreaker is a little fishy some people have analyzed the overall part of it to mean just simply a teams overall record which includes non conference games. Other people think it's overall record of the teams IN THE BIG12. That's something i am still trying to get some clearification on, but if it's overall record, then NU controls it's own destiny. If it's overall record IN THE BIG12, then NU as of NOW might not control it's own destiny untill CU beats MU

NU controls it's own destiny because Missouri has not proven it can win 4 games in a row against Big12 teams under gary pinkle. That plus the fact they are 0-7 in Manhattan and 0-13 against Kansas St since 1993. Pinkle is also 1-3 against Barnett. Missouri is also 1-9 in Boulder since 1985. Right now, MU has 2 guranteed losses ahead of them, giving NU complete control of it's destiny.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top