Nebraska's Edge: When and where did we lose it?

[Enhance]

I'm going to post this 100 times: The problem here is Bo. He's immature, inexperienced and too emotional. Let me explain: After MSU, you could tell that this team bought into it's press clippings. You could see it in Bo too - he was all loosey goosey Bo - a start contrast from the usual snippity Bo. guess what, that's not consistency - that's a HC who acts like his defense has arrived....... the giving out of the BlackShirts.... it all points to a sense of entitlement.

And I will post this 100 times in response - Bo is not the problem. Callahan was the problem.

The problem here is the SAME (#&$#$ problems that have plagued Bo's teams since the day he arrived: THE INABILITY TO STOP THE RUN. Bo's too enamored with himself and his "Peso". Guess what - that gimmicky defense will work againt Big12 teams and teams like MSU that are hell bent on passing. Teams that have a hint of running between the tackles and a QB that can pass SHRED this defense. It's simply too soft.....

I agree to a certain extent. I don't think our style of defensive play works well in the Big 10. That said, Northwestern is not so different from ISU or Missouri, and there were times when we did pretty well against em.

On offense, again - Bo's the PROBLEM - not Beck: Here's why: When Watson wanted to run his own offense, he was slapped by Tom and Bo and told to run zone read/Solich style garbage. Result? Crap. Watson fired.

It was a mistake by Bo to not let Watson go, but in no way is Bo the problem for the offense. He's ultimately responsible for the team, but assistant and position coaches are just as important to a team's success as a head coach is imho.

Fast forward to 2011: New OC, same problems: You can tell Beck wants to run a truly balanced offense with a legitimate passing QB. Bo steps in and hamstrings Beck with a HORRENDOUS QB - TMart - a QB with ZERO QB skills. We have taken TMarts strengths and turned him into a QB he simply is NOT made to be. TMart cannot/will not EVER make plays throwing the ball. Maybe that's why Beck would not pass the ball untill the 3rd when it was too late. I posted my thread about "concerns about the offense" because I saw the writing on the wall (although I didn't see it happening against a crap team like NW). Anyone can see that TM cannot make plays as a QB. End result? Bo has hamstrung Beck with a QB that Beck simply cannot work with. Just look at how the game went on -- it took us 3 FRIGGIN qtrs. to realize that the run was going nowhere but bec. we don't pass the ball and make use of our talented FR like Turner and Green, we're reduced to humping a serviceable RB who's not a big play guy. Just look at the teams out there making use of their talented FR. Carnes' season is over. Green and Turner have pretty much wasted their RD seasons when they should be used for the play making abilities.....

Well this is just a load of bad stuff. If Beck and Bo didn't share a vision, Bo wouldn't have hired him as the new OC. Bo had a choice, and he chose Beck. Obviously, they're on the same page. Watson, however, was a retainer that Bo did not know and did not share a vision with when they first started. Watson was given sole propriety and look where it got him - Bo had to step in on that garbage.

How can you say TMart cannot/will not EVER make plays throwing the ball, when he just did it yesterday? If you had said "consistently", I might have agreed with you, but TMart made plays throwing and running the football yesterday so...I'm not sure what you're getting at.

 

[The Duke]

Throughout college football history Nebraska football has been known for players playing with a fire, a toughness, a physical edge that many other teams in the country had a hard time duplicating. Our ball carriers would never run out of bounds, hook slide, or go down on the first hit. They would do everything they could to gain EVERY...SINGLE...YARD that they possibly could for their team. Our defenses used to be known for playing with their hair on fire, and they would would out muscle teams for 4 straight quarters, and would have the opposing offense begging for mercy by the 3rd quarter. I could go on, but to digress..... THE QUESTIONS: 1) Where has Nebraska's Edge (physical toughness/want to) gone? 2) How does Nebraska get it back?

Yeah, Nebraska never ever lost games in the good ol days. i love revisionism.

Jason Sitoke, first of all you are entitled to your opinion, but I never said or never meant to imply that Nebraska "never ever lost games in the good ol days." My point was that we used to play with a dominant swagger or edge on both sides of the ball....even when we would lose. The Nebraska teams over the last decade have not played with that same intensity or swagger that we used to. Opposing teams used to be scared to play us because of the style of offense we ran and by how relentless our defense was. My point was that somewhere along the way we lost that swagger. But I never said that we never ever lost a game. Even I know that we are not going to win every single game, every single year...that's just unrealistic.

The Duke, teams were scared to play NU back in the day because, due to several factors (scholarship limits, facilities, TV exposure), Nebraska's 3rd stringers were better athletes than the starting lineup of your basic KU, KSU, Iowa St. squads. Secondly, I saw Nebraska lose to an Iowa St team in Ames in 1992 19-10. That loss was as embarrassing and flabbergasting as any loss I can recall. This wasn't Bill Callahan and Sam Keller. This was Tom Osborne and Tommie Frazier. The swagger should have been in full effect after two straight beat downs over top 10 opponents. Yet, they laid an egg, weren't prepared, and paid for it. Lastly, I hate the word 'swagger'. Put it right up there with the word 'moxie'. Just seems like words that people use when they can't articulate why their team performed poorly.

I will stand by my statement that our team this year and mostly our teams over the past decade have not played with any kind of "swagger." If you choose to hate the word that is your right, but this Husker fan can't wait for the day when the Cornhuskers start playing with a "swagger" and an edge again. Why? Definition of swagger: To walk with an overbearing air of self-confidence. To walk or behave in a very confident and aggressive way. Give me an overbearing, self-confident, aggressive football team any day.

Swag comes with winning. And winning BIG games.

How many times did TO lose to unranked crappy teams? I think I can count on 1 hand.....

In year 4 we should not be in such a dismal position. Bo is not HC material. Plain and simple.

I completely agree with you that swagger comes with winning, and winning conference games, big games, and games your supposed to win. I disagree with you where you say "in year 4 we are in a 'dismal position," and I disagree that "Bo is not HC material." A dismal position is Callahan's 5-7 season in 2007 or Frank Solich's 7-7 season...that is dismal. Nebraska is not in a dismal position...yet...but we are starting to set a disturbing trend where we now have lost to an unranked team for 5 consecutive seasons. That never happened under Devaney, Osbourne, or Solich.

With that being said I do think Bo is head coaching material, and the right head coach for Nebraska. He has won at least 9 games every year since he's been here, and we have gone to a bowl game each of those years. Now that is the kind of trend I think all Husker fans can support. He and the coaching staff just need to do a better job of motivating our players in games when things are not going our way. All that is needed is some adjustments in a few areas so that we stop these poor performances and losses against teams that we are otherwise expected to beat.

 

[True2tRA]

There's definitely a lack of passion and aggression on this team. I hate to say that, because it was the one thing about Nebraska I was most proud of. There's been something missing for a long time. Team chemistry is at an all time low as well in my opinion. It just doesn't seem like it's a brotherhood anymore. These guys just don't get pissed. They get pushed around and don't push back. They get cheap shotted and don't cheap shot back. Their fellow LB'er gets blasted, they don't pay the sucker back on the next play. Burkhead picks himself off the turf every play. Where's a hand to help him up? The lineman breathe hard and walk around with their hands on their hips. Where's the love from these guys? If their not playing for each other then what the hell are they doing out there? Don't play for us, play for your team fellas. It's you who has to wake up and look in the mirror each day. You have to answer to yourself. Nobody else. Did you give it everything you've got yesterday? If you say yes, I say bullsh#t. I watched you quit. Don't be that team again.

 

[beanman]

It's been gone since the Holy Trinity broke up: Osborne, Epley, McBride. Throw in Tenopir for good measure.

Agree that when McBride left we were screwed. With him there our D was still awesome. I remember the first year after he left we were all watching the games wondering why our guys couldn't tackle anymore.

 

[dustyshelf]

When we stopped playing option football and running tough between the tackles. It was our niche in college football. Defensively, I have no clue.

 

[The Duke]

There's definitely a lack of passion and aggression on this team. I hate to say that, because it was the one thing about Nebraska I was most proud of. There's been something missing for a long time. Team chemistry is at an all time low as well in my opinion. It just doesn't seem like it's a brotherhood anymore. These guys just don't get pissed. They get pushed around and don't push back. They get cheap shotted and don't cheap shot back. Their fellow LB'er gets blasted, they don't pay the sucker back on the next play. Burkhead picks himself off the turf every play. Where's a hand to help him up? The lineman breathe hard and walk around with their hands on their hips. Where's the love from these guys? If their not playing for each other then what the hell are they doing out there? Don't play for us, play for your team fellas. It's you who has to wake up and look in the mirror each day. You have to answer to yourself. Nobody else. Did you give it everything you've got yesterday? If you say yes, I say bullsh#t. I watched you quit. Don't be that team again.

I completely agree. I think the simple answer to this goes back to how we have been naming Team Captains under Bo. Now don't get me wrong, compared to where we were under Callahan, Bo has done a solid job up to this point. But the two areas where I think Bo completely has it wrong is in how he names new team captains each week, and how he hands out over 11 plus Blackshirts well into the middle of the season.

I wrote a post a few weeks ago that pretty much made the argument that we need to name 3-4 permanent Team Captains at the beginning of the season, and they would be the the team leaders for the entire season. I also said that I think they should combine the way Bo is handing out the Blackshirts now to how we used to do it in the past.

Still make the players earn their Blackshirts, but make them earn it in fall camp. When fall camp is over Bo & Carl name the starting 11 for the first game, and that is who your 11 Blackshirts are. If one or more of those 11 players play in such a manner that merits their demotion to second team, so be it. Strip them of their Blackshirt for the next game, give it to the next man in line, and make that original player earn that Blackshirt back.

 

[In the Deed the Glory]

January 2000...when Charlie McBride retired. Our swagger has always come from our Blackshirts, the Offensive line fed off of it.