Pre-snap Read #16 Nebraska Preview

[Saunders]

You can sense the desperation from miles away: In Lincoln, the smell of fear – fear that there will be no renaissance, no climb back into the national picture – permeates every fiber of Nebraska football, from Taylor Martinez’s delivery to Barney Cotton’s offensive line to Cotton himself, with the Cornhuskers’ line coach drawing as much ire as any figure in the program’s proud history. There’s the fear that nine-win, four-loss seasons are the new norm; the former is a program birthright, but the latter is new. The fear that this current staff doesn’t have the answer. The fear that Nebraska bit off more than it could chew by hopping to the Big Ten. In Lincoln, the sense of impending doom stems from the idea that the offense will sputter, that the quarterback will throw off his back foot, that the defense isn’t up to par, that the pass rush lacks punch. Fear’s an ugly thing: Nebraska’s fan base is petrified. Good thing they play the games.

http://www.presnapread.com/no-16-nebraska/

By far the best preview I've read.

 

[tschu]

Wow, that's chilling.

And spot-on.

 

[okaive]

Really not looking forward to just another 9 wins.

 

[jwhbigred]

I Like this little note...

The Cornhuskers have won at least nine games in every season since 1962 but six: 1967-68, 2002, 2004-5 and 2007. Just as a comparison, let’s hold the rest of college football’s historical elite to the same standard. Alabama has 30 such seasons, if you include 1993, over that same span; Georgia has 23; L.S.U. 20; Michigan 30; Notre Dame 21; Ohio State 30, if we count the wins vacated in 2010; Oklahoma 27; Penn State 30, if you count each season since vacated by the N.C.A.A.; U.S.C. 24, if you include 2005; Tennessee 23; and Texas 28

 

[ladyhawke]

I Like this little note...

The Cornhuskers have won at least nine games in every season since 1962 but six: 1967-68, 2002, 2004-5 and 2007. Just as a comparison, let’s hold the rest of college football’s historical elite to the same standard. Alabama has 30 such seasons, if you include 1993, over that same span; Georgia has 23; L.S.U. 20; Michigan 30; Notre Dame 21; Ohio State 30, if we count the wins vacated in 2010; Oklahoma 27; Penn State 30, if you count each season since vacated by the N.C.A.A.; U.S.C. 24, if you include 2005; Tennessee 23; and Texas 28

I liked this part better: "the Huskers have 44 alone."

 

[bshirt]

Pre-Snap kicks a$$ & takes names.

 

[lo country]

Definitely the best review I have read to date. All the good, bad and ugly. Some good historical perspective with hope for the future. Is it kickoff time yet????!!!!

 

[JetSetBoostio]

and there's a huskerboard shoutout at the bottom!

 

[shyndy]

What would "several tough decisions on the coaching staff" be (nightmare season)? Every one is so recent, I can't imagine anyone but Barney being canned.

 

[robsker]

that preview was, by far, the most accurate and reasonable description I have seen.

Husker fans are a fearful people right now. We all know that unless massive improvement does not occur this season, then what looms is another rocky period of finding another answer as to how to move forward... either the season after this or, more likely, the one thereafter.

To me, the most palpable fear is described in this quote from the article...

The fear that this current staff doesn’t have the answer.

 

[lo country]

that preview was, by far, the most accurate and reasonable description I have seen.

Husker fans are a fearful people right now. We all know that unless massive improvement does not occur this season, then what looms is another rocky period of finding another answer as to how to move forward... either the season after this or, more likely, the one thereafter.

To me, the most palpable fear is described in this quote from the article...

The fear that this current staff doesn’t have the answer.

Brand new DC, brand new OC (year 2 anyway), HC with no prior HC experience, questionable OL coach with 2 grad assistants (no prior coaching experience) a WR coach with limited experience etc....... At least we have a DB coach and now DL coach with experience, but again brand new to this staff.

IIRC, Bo has yet to have the same staff together since he has been here. That has got to be an issue. Trying to get your staff and team on the same page. Also has to be hard trying to learn your position whether OC, DC etc and trying to teach it to the kids. Not to mention we have run like 14 different offensive schemes in 4 yrs so every spring and fall has been trying to learn new O, blocking, schemes, personnel etc.... I hope to see marked improvement in execution alone being the first time the team has run the "same" O 2 years in a row.

Bo has an uphill battle for sure. 9 wins a year is very good and in great company, BUT we are NU and realistically or not, we expect to be in the hunt every year. As another thread showed, Bo came into a horrific situation with the debacle that was the BC years. He had to change the culture, staff and now change conferences and go back to recruiting a different type of player IMO.

I truly think if he can find away to negate the melt downs in penalties and beat the teams we "should" beat, we are easily 2 wins a year better. The self inflicted mistakes have plagued us for 4 years. I hope year 5 seems them gone. If we can not find a way to "coach" this melt down, let down issue we are probably going to be a 9 win a year team. I just can't figure out if the mistakes are the kids fault or coaching issue.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

that preview was, by far, the most accurate and reasonable description I have seen.

Husker fans are a fearful people right now. We all know that unless massive improvement does not occur this season, then what looms is another rocky period of finding another answer as to how to move forward... either the season after this or, more likely, the one thereafter.

To me, the most palpable fear is described in this quote from the article...

The fear that this current staff doesn’t have the answer.

Brand new DC, brand new OC (year 2 anyway), HC with no prior HC experience, questionable OL coach with 2 grad assistants (no prior coaching experience) a WR coach with limited experience etc....... At least we have a DB coach and now DL coach with experience, but again brand new to this staff.

IIRC, Bo has yet to have the same staff together since he has been here. That has got to be an issue. Trying to get your staff and team on the same page. Also has to be hard trying to learn your position whether OC, DC etc and trying to teach it to the kids. Not to mention we have run like 14 different offensive schemes in 4 yrs so every spring and fall has been trying to learn new O, blocking, schemes, personnel etc.... I hope to see marked improvement in execution alone being the first time the team has run the "same" O 2 years in a row.

Bo has an uphill battle for sure. 9 wins a year is very good and in great company, BUT we are NU and realistically or not, we expect to be in the hunt every year. As another thread showed, Bo came into a horrific situation with the debacle that was the BC years. He had to change the culture, staff and now change conferences and go back to recruiting a different type of player IMO.

I truly think if he can find away to negate the melt downs in penalties and beat the teams we "should" beat, we are easily 2 wins a year better. The self inflicted mistakes have plagued us for 4 years. I hope year 5 seems them gone. If we can not find a way to "coach" this melt down, let down issue we are probably going to be a 9 win a year team. I just can't figure out if the mistakes are the kids fault or coaching issue.

Also, don't forget that recruiting to NU isn't as easy as it used to be. He has to completely change how his team approaches its conference opponents now and still has to get the right players to come here. Not easy.................he's earning his money right now with all the challenges and changes.

 

[Comish]

Great analysis.........not too much to disagree with .........

9 wins is the worst scenario.......too much going for this team to be worse than that.............10 or above is predicted here.........

 

[Mierin]

We all know that unless massive improvement does not occur this season, then what looms is another rocky period of finding another answer as to how to move forward...

I'm assuming you meant unless it does occur. Speak for yourself, please. "We all" do not agree that Nebraska needs "massive" improvement this year. We need minor improvement to be a 10 or 11 win team. In fact, even if our record doesn't improve one bit, I still don't agree on this "rocky period" of yours. (We have way too many doom and gloom fans).

 

[mrandyk]

I want to see Bo finish with less than 4 losses for once. I highly doubt that will happen though. I expect two or three losses from the OSU, Wisconsin, Michigan, and MSU games, plus we have to go play at UCLA (not too scared, but maybe), Northwestern (beat us at home last year), and Iowa (that place is going to be f'ing loud, this is their Super Bowl that they've been waiting decades for). Then we get to go to a bowl, and those have worked out just horribly the last two years.