I agree. Plus they finished their year on a sour note by losing to Mississippi in the Cotton Bowl. Luckily for them, the Big 12 South I think will not be as tough in years past. Texas has to replace Colt McCoy, and if it's Garrett Gilbert, I think there could be some problems for them. Shipley is also out, so they lose their two biggest offensive play makers. Nevertheless, they are Texas, and will always find a way to reload.
One would have to think that all the off-field problems at Texas Tech might have a negative impact on them as well. I think the door is wide open for a team like Texas A&M to stun some people and take the South.
Explain? For being a FR in the MNC game, I thought he looked fine against Bama....
Give him a full season under center, without the headlights/"Oh crap I have to play", he will be fine. Not the same offense as with McCoy, but they'll probably be more balanced which makes them better overall.
We'll see. He showed some poise late in the game, but he was 15-40 with 4 interceptions. I just know I feel more confident about Nebraska playing Texas without McCoy, and I think other Big XII teams will also.
His poise came once he got acclimated. We give Cody Green the benefit of the doubt because he was thrust into games "un-ready" and "green" as a FR. We never tried to put him in in the MNC. There is no way that kid was even remotely mentally prepared to play in that game, and no one on Earth can blame him. McCoy going down was never even an after thought. It showed and he came out looking completely lost, but once it sunk in during halftime, he came out more effective and they were in position to win the game.
He also had like 8 dropped in the first half including a TD IIRC, even Shipley was dropping them. The pick 6 at the half was Brown's fault, should have been kneeled. At that point, Bama could pin their ears back and not worry about the run AT ALL, so I'd expect his numbers to be a little ugly. He also wasn't scared to go deep, and was fairly accurate doing so given the pass rush and Bama knowing they had to. McCoy didn't go deep very often, and as all Husker fans know the last couple years, it only takes 1 or 2 deep balls to change a game.
If we were his first game or two, I'd be giddy about it, but we play him after a couple games. On top of that, he'll get all the snaps leading up to it, and all the snaps in practice. I'm sure McCoy got nearly every snap all season, so he should make strides this offseason.
That said, I'd definitely rather play him than McCoy, and since we had McCoy looking the way Gilbert did in the MNC when we played them in the BIGXII CCG, I can't imagine this kid in his first year starting will look any more poised against us unless our Dline is worthless.
