nathanwindu
Three-Star Recruit
First off, congrats to UCLA, I think many of us thought this was going to be a relatively easy win. They simply outplayed us, no ifs, ands, or buts.
Now, moving on to Nebraska. The 1st half offense was looking like the one we saw against Southern Miss, then UCLA made adjustments, and we didn't. We abandoned the run and became very one dimensional, with a QB that, even though he's improved his mechanics, is still not the best option to simply throw it around. Going away from Abdullah wasn't the right move, in my opinion, but with how the O-Line started to play (very 2011-esque), maybe it was the right decision. Hit and miss game for Beck.
The Defense played very undisciplined. FINISH YOUR TACKLES!!! There were no adjustments made, I can't believe how many times we saw UCLA use that wheel route/hook screen, and it worked EVERY SINGLE TIME! There were too many blown coverages, the D-Line didn't get any push, and the LB's kept missing tackles. a poor performance all around for everybody.
Special Teams was up and down. I think Maher's confidence is shaken this season, he almost got it back with the 54 yarder, but then missing another simple 35+ yarder later just crushed it again. The coverage was better this game, that's for sure.
I also think there was a lack of effort and heart from the players. That shouldn't be the case, there were arguably more Husker fans than Bruin fans in the stadium, and this was as good as any road game to come out fiery and inspired. And I think the team fell flat in that area. Some players showed a lot of heart, especially Compton. But even with all the effort in the world, the fundamentally unsound play on both sides of the ball will get you beat.
So while I think the players are lacking in talent (can we please just get some speed on the defense?), I think a lot of this comes down to coaching. All these fundamentals problems can be fixed with proper coaching. I'm starting to have serious doubts about this staff...with the amount of talent we've pulled in with the last couple recruiting classes, sometimes it feels like 4-star talent with 2-star coaching.
I'm willing to chalk this game up as an aberration, move on, and come out strong the rest of the season. But 2 games in, the defense has serious questions, the D-Line specifically, the Offense is on and off, and the Special Teams are struggling. If this doesn't improve, I think some of these coaches that have questionable resumes that Bo hired for familiarity reasons need to be evaluated. Papuchis is a great recruiter (and from the looks of it, a good special teams coach), but when he took over the whole D-Line last season, the level of play dropped off. I have little faith in Els so far, Kaczenski seems to have changed nothing, Cotton/Garrison are still inconsistent, though getting better, etc. I'm not putting it all on the coaches, obviously the players have to make the plays, but it's quite obvious to me that the coaching is not top-notch, and I'm sorry, but I refuse to accept consistent 9-4 seasons, because I know we can be better than that. I thank Bo Pelini for bringing us out of the black hole known as Callahan/Cosgrove, but if we can't get it together, it might be time to find somebody that can take us that next step.
Just my .02
Now, moving on to Nebraska. The 1st half offense was looking like the one we saw against Southern Miss, then UCLA made adjustments, and we didn't. We abandoned the run and became very one dimensional, with a QB that, even though he's improved his mechanics, is still not the best option to simply throw it around. Going away from Abdullah wasn't the right move, in my opinion, but with how the O-Line started to play (very 2011-esque), maybe it was the right decision. Hit and miss game for Beck.
The Defense played very undisciplined. FINISH YOUR TACKLES!!! There were no adjustments made, I can't believe how many times we saw UCLA use that wheel route/hook screen, and it worked EVERY SINGLE TIME! There were too many blown coverages, the D-Line didn't get any push, and the LB's kept missing tackles. a poor performance all around for everybody.
Special Teams was up and down. I think Maher's confidence is shaken this season, he almost got it back with the 54 yarder, but then missing another simple 35+ yarder later just crushed it again. The coverage was better this game, that's for sure.
I also think there was a lack of effort and heart from the players. That shouldn't be the case, there were arguably more Husker fans than Bruin fans in the stadium, and this was as good as any road game to come out fiery and inspired. And I think the team fell flat in that area. Some players showed a lot of heart, especially Compton. But even with all the effort in the world, the fundamentally unsound play on both sides of the ball will get you beat.
So while I think the players are lacking in talent (can we please just get some speed on the defense?), I think a lot of this comes down to coaching. All these fundamentals problems can be fixed with proper coaching. I'm starting to have serious doubts about this staff...with the amount of talent we've pulled in with the last couple recruiting classes, sometimes it feels like 4-star talent with 2-star coaching.
I'm willing to chalk this game up as an aberration, move on, and come out strong the rest of the season. But 2 games in, the defense has serious questions, the D-Line specifically, the Offense is on and off, and the Special Teams are struggling. If this doesn't improve, I think some of these coaches that have questionable resumes that Bo hired for familiarity reasons need to be evaluated. Papuchis is a great recruiter (and from the looks of it, a good special teams coach), but when he took over the whole D-Line last season, the level of play dropped off. I have little faith in Els so far, Kaczenski seems to have changed nothing, Cotton/Garrison are still inconsistent, though getting better, etc. I'm not putting it all on the coaches, obviously the players have to make the plays, but it's quite obvious to me that the coaching is not top-notch, and I'm sorry, but I refuse to accept consistent 9-4 seasons, because I know we can be better than that. I thank Bo Pelini for bringing us out of the black hole known as Callahan/Cosgrove, but if we can't get it together, it might be time to find somebody that can take us that next step.
Just my .02
