PJ Smith talks about Wisconsin blowout

[skersfan]

No sker, I have never touted that year has historic, just lucky.

I am a huge fan of Taylor, no question, but I did feel we missed on some QB's that should have been better. I loved his heart, his never quit attitude. To me he was what a Husker is supposed to be. He just played as hard as he could when we had nothing else on the roster. Sacrificing his body for this program. No one can ask for more.

As to Bucky, I thought he would be a good addition, we only had Taylor who I felt was never right after the Missouri injury. I must admit I have become a huge fan of Russel since his days at Wisconsin. Nice kid, and very happy for him.

 

[Count 'Bility]

All i can say is this. Read up on the lever-spill-lever and the over/under schemes and techniques. Then watch that game. And I guarantee you you will have no problem placing 90% of the blame for that catastrophy on Stafford and Whaley.

EZ elludued to this many times after the game and pointed out the exact same things you are saying. Bo has stated before that everyone needs to play within the system and when one person is out of it, it goes downhill.

And as much as people want to point to this as a bo issue and that maybe it needs simplified or whatever need to realize that playing within a scheme as a whole unit to be successfulis just the way bigtime football is played. Its not frickim junior high anymore. Even Suh had to play within his position and his technique.

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

All i can say is this. Read up on the lever-spill-lever and the over/under schemes and techniques. Then watch that game. And I guarantee you you will have no problem placing 90% of the blame for that catastrophy on Stafford and Whaley.

EZ elludued to this many times after the game and pointed out the exact same things you are saying. Bo has stated before that everyone needs to play within the system and when one person is out of it, it goes downhill.

I don't mean to call anyone out, but I remember Bo, or someone, mentioning how Charles Jackson would start free ranging during practice, which often led to a busted coverage and easy plays for our offense. Many on this board (including myself) kept wondering why we are not seeing him in the game and calling Bo out on it. Bo's defenses are assignment football, and each player has to rely on the fact that everyone is going to play their assignment. I use CJax as an example because of how good Bo thinks he could be if he plays within the defense, and that this year, he is looking to be the #1 guy for the nickel spot which suggests he has learned his role and earned the trust of his team.

You can also look at the 2 or 3 corner blitz that failed in the spring game because when Cockrell came over, no one picked up the WR. However, they did try it once when the safety came over, and Cockrell was able to get into the backfield to blow up the play.

Yeah, there are lots of examples to prove your point.

 

[Count 'Bility]

My gawd quit acting like we came back and won the games. Hell the refs the other teams made every effort to give us the games. We were very lucky to win some of those games. Call it what it was, it had nothing to do with grit, overcoming in a few. We got breaks. Not saying the others didn't, but that season has never been awe inspiring for me. We should have lost three more games.
We saw more of it last year.

All this is in the past. It is time to stop worrying about what happened. Nothing is going to change.

We have a few months before we learn if things have changed.

And if I remember correctly I thought I heard at one time Russel had us on his list and virtually no one on this board wanted him here. He would be of no value.

We did not need him, got his stats in the ACC.

By this logic we really got screwed in 2009 and shoulda went 14-0 with a national title. Vatech, TexasTech, IState, and Texas all got lucky and had the refs make the calls in their favor. Youll never convince me that those teams made the plays when they had too and that we failed to.

 

[The Dude]

How is it decided that several of Pelini's senior veterans playing outside of Pelini's system is no fault of Pelini's?
How is it not his responsibility to, ya' know, coach the team?

He can't make the plays for them. If you listen to PJ, he said it was all on the players, not the coaches. I'd say that everyone should listen to the podcast.

I'm aware of PJ's opinion. My question is how is that conclusion reached? If it's simply a matter of physical talent, that's one thing. I understand the "Jimmies and Joes - Xs and Os" thing, but if it's several veteran players playing out of position, that has to be a matter of coaching, at least a little bit, right?

 

[Count 'Bility]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

 

[Count 'Bility]

How is it decided that several of Pelini's senior veterans playing outside of Pelini's system is no fault of Pelini's?
How is it not his responsibility to, ya' know, coach the team?

He can't make the plays for them. If you listen to PJ, he said it was all on the players, not the coaches. I'd say that everyone should listen to the podcast.

I'm aware of PJ's opinion. My question is how is that conclusion reached? If it's simply a matter of physical talent, that's one thing. I understand the "Jimmies and Joes - Xs and Os" thing, but if it's several veteran players playing out of position, that has to be a matter of coaching, at least a little bit, right?

Im not gonna disagree with you dude. There does seem to be An issue. But weve also seen bo coach some defenses be absolutely sound in this regard for a whole season. So thats why i can lean towards it bein a personell issue.

 

[NUpolo8]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

So by all means keep them in and let them be arrogant and let them get 70 dropped on them? That's the part I don't get. If that debacle is directly attributed to a few guys being out of position, get them the freaking hell away from the field, or heaven forbid, coach them.

 

[The Dude]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

This, I do agree with. Where I become befuddled is the notion that a football coach inherently has no control over getting his guys to play sound assignment football, because "he can't do it for them". In fact, I happen to believe it's a fairly significant job function.

-snip-

By this logic we really got screwed in 2009 and shoulda went 14-0 with a national title. Vatech, TexasTech, IState, and Texas all got lucky and had the refs make the calls in their favor. Youll never convince me that those teams made the plays when they had too and that we failed to.

+1

 

[74Hunter]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

So by all means keep them in and let them be arrogant and let them get 70 dropped on them? That's the part I don't get. If that debacle is directly attributed to a few guys being out of position, get them the freaking hell away from the field, or heaven forbid, coach them.

I don't disagree, but who else was going to play? He put the best guys out there, they said they'd play within the system, then they decided to freelance.

 

[74Hunter]

How is it decided that several of Pelini's senior veterans playing outside of Pelini's system is no fault of Pelini's?
How is it not his responsibility to, ya' know, coach the team?

He can't make the plays for them. If you listen to PJ, he said it was all on the players, not the coaches. I'd say that everyone should listen to the podcast.

I'm aware of PJ's opinion. My question is how is that conclusion reached? If it's simply a matter of physical talent, that's one thing. I understand the "Jimmies and Joes - Xs and Os" thing, but if it's several veteran players playing out of position, that has to be a matter of coaching, at least a little bit, right?

Maybe. I certainly don't have the answers, but i think my previous post is applicable here, too.

 

[Thanks_Tom RR]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

Agreed. Still, for Bo's defenses, they are definitely rely more on multiple coverages. I remember an interview with Jonathan Rose (the Auburn transfer). He spoke about how at Auburn, he was asked to play mostly man-on-man and just win the battle. However, at Nebraska, the corners are asked to have more, in-depth understanding of multiple coverages and rely more on technique.

 

[Excel]

There's an entire other half to 2012 Big Ten CCG that I don't think is being discussed in this thread and that is what Wisconsin did.

You guys can identify shortcomings of that Husker team and either blame or excuse them but that's only one part of that game. As much as the Huskers might have failed to execute the Badgers did execute. I was deployed that season and didn't get to watch every game though I tried and I don't remember every detail but I think the general strategy was to play vanilla games, conserve strength and focus and not really fight because hey "we're going to the CG anyhow". That Wisconsin team lost four out of five of those losses by a field goal and the other game by only a TD...three games in OT. They were a much better team than the 7-5 record indicated.

I know I'm rambiling but I think that game was really the story of two teams:

Nebraska:A talented yet overconfident team that caught several breaks earlier in the season.

Wisconsin: A talented yet frustrated team that finally got to a game that mattered and blew its load.

Yea, Nebraska may have failed to execute or the coaches may have failed to motivate or whatever but there's a whole other half.

 

[Stumpy1]

Bo's defenses are assignment football? EVERY DEFENSE AT THIS LEVEL IS ASSIGNMENT FOOTBALL. Like i said. This aint junior high anymore. Your one or two studs dont just dont fly all over the field making plays. At this level if those one ore two guys gets arrogantly out of position and doesnt do their job, we see what we saw in Indy that night.

So by all means keep them in and let them be arrogant and let them get 70 dropped on them? That's the part I don't get. If that debacle is directly attributed to a few guys being out of position, get them the freaking hell away from the field, or heaven forbid, coach them.

This is where Bo is in a no-win situation...Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

I agree that it would have been worth trying and maybe we could have gotten different results. I look at the situation like a Baseball coach looks at pulling his pitcher. Do you let him try to get out of it on his own or do you bring in someone new. It is one of those calls that is hard to make at certain situations in the game. With the way that game was going, it definitely wouldn't have hurt to try someone new.

 

[RedDenver]

My gawd quit acting like we came back and won the games.

We don't have to act. We did win those games.