Proposed Changes for Next Year . . .

[HuskerinSunDiego]

Being from Southern Cal, it was amazing to watch USC dismantled UCLA last night 50-0. They are on probation and currently could beat any team in the country. Here are my suggestions for us to get to the level of USC (Save the Reggie Bush comments). Before you read this, these are not personal barbs. I have no vendettas against any coaches or players. These are my X's and O's assessment of what we need to climb to the top wrung:

1. Give Barney Cotton a nice retirement party. Let Garrison take over the reigns completely. The line was painfully average this year.

2. Bo needs to officially become D-Coordinator.

3. Carl is fine in a lesser position. Not all guys can be alpha males, but he's pretty decent as a position coach.

4. Put Jamaal Turner back at QB. The guy is explosive. T-Mart isn't. T-Mart has become a safe, vanilla QB. Not what we need to go all the way.

5. Buy stock in Jason Ankrah. I didn't think much of him early, but he's starting to move.

6. Choi. I seriously wonder if he can go back and find an extra year for when he played 1 or 2 snaps in years past. He is ready to explode. If he were only to be a junior next year, our new O-line coach would be in heaven.

7. Buy more stock: Andrew Green. The guy looked crappy early but turned into a force. It speaks volumes to his mental toughness.

8. Move Stafford to linebacker.

9. USC consistently plays true freshmen. We don't. They consistently are in the top 3, we aren't. I'll take sloppy aggression over safe, "doesn't make too many mistakes" upper class men. Also, if you truly play freshmen, you will attract more of them. Just a thought.

10. Rotate 2-deep at all positions all year. When we did it against Washington, the team was electrified. Keep it up all year. The entire team will only be better for it.

11. No need to give Rex 600 carries when you have stellar backups. The only time Rex needs 600 carries is when you have Austin Jones as second string. Although Rex played great, Bo blew this one by frustrating his star backups. Hard to say he made a mistake with Rex, but he did. This could cause problems for the backups next year who know they won't play much.

12. Will Bo have the guts to do what he did when he started T-Mart over Zack Lee? T-Mart has become a safe, game manager, but I think he has peaked. Instead of completely changing horses, why not spit time 50-50 between 2 QBs until later in the season, to see who should run the stretch. Yes, Bo, put the backup in with your team trailing 14-7 in the second quarter.

13. Bo needs to play backups when the game is in the balance. Some backups will actually shine if given the chance. Unfortunately, Bo refuses to do so. We will never make the leap until he starts having faith in the backups. Makes no sense that perennially average starters stay in the game 99% of the time. If a starter is all-world, then I can understand why he doesn't come out. But why do guys like Yoshi and Marcel Jones get treated as if they are Zach Weigart or Brendan Stai?

14. Don't ever try to block another punt again.

15. To get the o-line in sync, Bo needs to pick one series each game where he tells the o-line, "We are not going to pass once on this possession. Get us to the end zone." I think it will teach the line to be aggressive.

 

[Hoosker]

1. Find a way to get Jamal Turner on the field. He's too explosive of an athlete to have stand on the sidelines. QB, WR, PR, KR, wherever they use him, he needs to see multiple touches every game.

2. Even if Brion still hasn't challenged Taylor for the starting role, give him A LOT MORE playing time. He needs to develop and deserves a chance to show what he can do in a game.

3. Run plays out of formations that utilize the speed and quickness of our backs and receivers (DIAMOND)

4. Fix our punt return game so we can actually return kicks next year.

5. With Dennard and David leaving a young and less talented defense, even more pressure is going to be on our offense to get the job done.

 

[Count 'Bility]

I'm sure the development of Ankrah, Choi, and Andrew Green have nothing to do with the coaches that people want gone all the time. As far as Martinez, he has developed into exactly what everyone wanted at this time last year. Do better at managing the game and passing instead of being the home run hitter.

 

[BIG ERN]

1. Agree

2/3. No Carl is fine at D coordinator. Bo is in his ear enough anyways.

4. I def see ur point here, he should at least get a chance along with Carnes.

5. He's only a soph so has plenty of time to improve but havent seen enough yet.

6. Choi = Boss

7. Eh, again haven't seen enough from him but has made strides. The kid can tackle but his coverage still makes me hold my breath.

8. I've heard this from others but I like Stafford at safety unless we feel Zaire or Whaley can't cut it next year.

9. We played some this year, but Abdullah and others didn't play enough, not even close.

10. Dk about all year, but needed more often.

11. Yup

12. Already talked about backups 3 times.

I think Bo is our guy and stand by him as head coach but:

1. I'd like to see him stay more poised in situations because I think this wears off on our team. More turnovers and penalties when kids are scared to make mistakes.

2. Why do we see players and then they disappear? Osborne and Turner were the main two.

 

[HANC]

You guys are putting a LOT of stock into "back up" guys who not even YOU have seen....what makes you sooo sure they are better. Unless you are attending practices daily, not sure that anyone can assume that these guys are are better.... the old adage applies... "the back up qb is always the fans favorite player on the team"....

It was very obvioius that the 3 freshmen weren't ready to run between the tackles and you can't just live on toss sweeps and reverses....if they enter the game, any DC worth his salt would understand that they aren't coming up the middle, so let's bring "outside" pressure......football 101........... this was painfully apparent the last 3 series in Iowa game......3 - 3 and outs with freshmen running mostly between tackles...... and yes, Nebraska was hoping to get first downs and would have with Rex.

Taylor is NOT just safe.... head to another thread and check out his numbers compared to Denard Robinson..... pretty much equal....but I guess he is just "safe" and vanilla too.

Maybe it is the coach in me talking here, but it AMAZES me that sooo many fans are smarter than the guys who coach these kids on a regular basis (daily) and we are basing opinions on the Red-White game and a few "flashes" against non-Big 10 teams.

 

[Enhance]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

 

[Hoosker]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

They had a ton of talent around them. It really didn't matter who was QB for the Tide in 09, all he had to do was hand off to Ingram and Richardson and let the defense do the rest. Until we have the talent that the Tide and Tigers had those years, settling for a "good" quarterback isn't going to cut it.

 

[ladyhawke]

You guys are putting a LOT of stock into "back up" guys who not even YOU have seen....what makes you sooo sure they are better. Unless you are attending practices daily, not sure that anyone can assume that these guys are are better.... the old adage applies... "the back up qb is always the fans favorite player on the team"....

It was very obvioius that the 3 freshmen weren't ready to run between the tackles and you can't just live on toss sweeps and reverses....if they enter the game, any DC worth his salt would understand that they aren't coming up the middle, so let's bring "outside" pressure......football 101........... this was painfully apparent the last 3 series in Iowa game......3 - 3 and outs with freshmen running mostly between tackles...... and yes, Nebraska was hoping to get first downs and would have with Rex.

Taylor is NOT just safe.... head to another thread and check out his numbers compared to Denard Robinson..... pretty much equal....but I guess he is just "safe" and vanilla too.

Maybe it is the coach in me talking here, but it AMAZES me that sooo many fans are smarter than the guys who coach these kids on a regular basis (daily) and we are basing opinions on the Red-White game and a few "flashes" against non-Big 10 teams.

I agree with you to a certain extent. Joe Ganz comes to mind. I keep thinking how many more games we would've won had Callahan had the guts to put Joe in. By the time he DID put him in, it was too late and Joe was already a Jr/Sr.

It doesn't hurt to put in our back ups just so they can get some 'stage time'. Playing in front of 85,000 plus people at Memorial Stadium is a far cry from playing in practice.

 

[Enhance]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

They had a ton of talent around them. It really didn't matter who was QB for the Tide in 09, all he had to do was hand off to Ingram and Richardson and let the defense do the rest. Until we have the talent that the Tide and Tigers had those years, settling for a "good" quarterback isn't going to cut it.

I agree with you. My point is we don't need Martinez to be great if we can get better around him. Personally, I would hate to be a team reliant on a great quarterback to win. Just look at Auburn this year and how much has changed since last year. They lost other pieces than just Newton, but do they win a championship without him? Does Texas win a championship with Young? Probably not.

If we can get better around Martinez, we don't need him to be great and we don't need a great qb to succeed.

 

[ladyhawke]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

Bo was the defensive coordinator at LSU in 2007. In looking at the wins during that time period their strong defense kept the other teams from scoring.

 

[Enhance]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

Bo was the defensive coordinator at LSU in 2007. In looking at the wins during that time period their strong defense kept the other teams from scoring.

Another fair point, which I think backs up my overall theme here. We don't need Martinez to be great in order to win, we just need to be better around him. And personally, I'd rather we be like a '07 LSU or '09 Bama, than a '10 Auburn or '05 Texas that relied essentially on one fantastic player to get everything done.

 

[Hoosker]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

They had a ton of talent around them. It really didn't matter who was QB for the Tide in 09, all he had to do was hand off to Ingram and Richardson and let the defense do the rest. Until we have the talent that the Tide and Tigers had those years, settling for a "good" quarterback isn't going to cut it.

I agree with you. My point is we don't need Martinez to be great if we can get better around him. Personally, I would hate to be a team reliant on a great quarterback to win. Just look at Auburn this year and how much has changed since last year. They lost other pieces than just Newton, but do they win a championship without him? Does Texas win a championship with Young? Probably not.

If we can get better around Martinez, we don't need him to be great and we don't need a great qb to succeed.

Right, but my point is that until we have those athletes that the SEC has, if we ever will, we shouldn't be satisfied with a "good, but not great" quarterback. My lone problem is that he is the only one taking snaps. It's hard to imagine him going down and Nebraska still having a good season. I think Brion has a higher ceiling than Taylor and until he gets his chance to shine and show what he can do, we will continue to be all about Taylor. I'm not saying Brion is capable of winning 10 games his first year as a starter, but I still want to see how he plays against real competition.

Bottom line: I think we need to do everything we can to find more and more playmakers on offense, regardless of position, in order to help compete with teams with superior football players.

 

[Count 'Bility]

You guys are putting a LOT of stock into "back up" guys who not even YOU have seen....what makes you sooo sure they are better. Unless you are attending practices daily, not sure that anyone can assume that these guys are are better.... the old adage applies... "the back up qb is always the fans favorite player on the team"....

It was very obvioius that the 3 freshmen weren't ready to run between the tackles and you can't just live on toss sweeps and reverses....if they enter the game, any DC worth his salt would understand that they aren't coming up the middle, so let's bring "outside" pressure......football 101........... this was painfully apparent the last 3 series in Iowa game......3 - 3 and outs with freshmen running mostly between tackles...... and yes, Nebraska was hoping to get first downs and would have with Rex.

Taylor is NOT just safe.... head to another thread and check out his numbers compared to Denard Robinson..... pretty much equal....but I guess he is just "safe" and vanilla too.

Maybe it is the coach in me talking here, but it AMAZES me that sooo many fans are smarter than the guys who coach these kids on a regular basis (daily) and we are basing opinions on the Red-White game and a few "flashes" against non-Big 10 teams.

Post of the year right there. Maybe the smartest group of words I have ever read on Huskerboard. I would give you a thousand +'s if I could.

 

[Count 'Bility]

While I do wish we played more back-ups at times, it's not a realistic expectation to put them in during tough stretches of games. We don't have that kind of depth. We didn't blow out enough teams this year to get our back ups into games. A small rotation here or there was visible all year, but starters need to be in during those tough stretches. You risk too much without them. There's a reason Marcel Jones started over Tyler Moore sometime after the Wisconsin game. I don't know what the reason is, but Bo and Co. aren't stupid.

Lastly, it's nowhere near time to be exchanging Martinez for someone else. Martinez and Burkhead (and David of course) are the reasons we won against tOSU after Miller went out. Martinez was the quintessential playmaker that day, and he has shown flashes of that since. Has he been that ultimate playmaker like a Crouch or Frazier? No, but I don't think we need him to be. Plenty of teams win championships without game breaking quarterbacks. '09 Alabama and '07 LSU are a couple of teams that pop out in my head. They had good quarterbacks, but not great ones.

They had a ton of talent around them. It really didn't matter who was QB for the Tide in 09, all he had to do was hand off to Ingram and Richardson and let the defense do the rest. Until we have the talent that the Tide and Tigers had those years, settling for a "good" quarterback isn't going to cut it.

I agree with you. My point is we don't need Martinez to be great if we can get better around him. Personally, I would hate to be a team reliant on a great quarterback to win. Just look at Auburn this year and how much has changed since last year. They lost other pieces than just Newton, but do they win a championship without him? Does Texas win a championship with Young? Probably not.

If we can get better around Martinez, we don't need him to be great and we don't need a great qb to succeed.

Very well put. Could we win a championship without Frazier? Wait......

 

[C N Red]

1.) Get Turner on the field!! If he cant block then find him a position he can play where he doesnt need to.