The 2003 Blackshirts

rkhufu7 said:
junior4949 said:
rkhufu7 said:
JTrain said:
I still have the official "Husker Defense 2003" poster on the wall in my room. It's hard to believe how much our talent level has diminished on that side of the ball since then. I love our guys now, but aside from Suh and Potter, I don't know if a single one of them would have been starting in '03. It makes me excited for the years to come when Pelini gets the guys he wants in there and we can have another great defense like '03 or '99.

Here's a look at some of the '03 Blackshirts, and where they are five years later:

Dan Bullocks: NFL (starter)

Josh Bullocks: NFL (starter)

Barrett Ruud: NFL (starter)

Fabian Washington: NFL (starter)

Demorrio Williams: NFL (starter)

Ryon Bingham: NFL

LeKevin Smith: NFL

Trevor Johnson: Not on a roster, but played several years as a backup in the NFL

TJ Hollowell: Not on a roster, but saw limited time in the NFL and CFL

Patrick Kabongo: CFL (starter on offense), signed NFL FA contract for a short time in '04

5 current NFL starters

7 current NFL contributors

10 made NFL teams at some point

Those numbers are pretty staggering.
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WHAT A JOKE! didn't this team lead the nation in INTs, yet were killed by any team with a mobile QB, UT, KSU and Missouri! NFL talent and great college teams are two different things! No McBride defense was getting 40 points scored on it 3 times to big rivals UT, MU and KSU and saying they did a GREAT JOB! Kids!
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I suggest you go back into the late 80's early 90's and see the drummings a McBride defense took at the hands of the Miami's, Florida States, Georgia Tech, basically anyone we played in a bowl game. 1990 (Georgia Tech 45, Nebraska 21) 1989 (Florida State 45, Nebraska 21). In 1991, the defense didn't allow Miami to totally overwhelm them giving up just 22 points. However, it is the only bowl game Nebraska has ever been to where we laid a great big goose egg on the scoreboard. This was the great McBride's D prior to the lightbulb going off when we actually started recruiting some speed on D which led to a few NC. We lost 7 bowl games in a row. In all but 2 of those bowl games, we scored enough points to win if we'd have had any sort of defense at all. In 2003, only Missouri put 40 or more points up on us. KState played in a BCS bowl and maybe would have played for a NC had Roberson not got hurt earlier in the season. They put up 38 on us.
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Once you raise your standards, you don't go backwards! 2003 was not a great defense by NU standards! Osborne allowed him to switch schemes and that is what helped change the defense, but for the most part, even when they ran a 5-2, they still were great STATISTICALLY!
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I'm almost 100% confident that I can read and am not hooked on phonics. I'm almost 100% confident that I read where you posted: No McBride defense was getting 40 points scored on it. It has absolutely nothing to do with raising standards. Teams go backwards all the time. We were winning NC in the early 70's. We went backwards and didn't win another one until 94'. Since the Bobfather, I highly doubt any standards have been raised. They've been at the top for decades.

 
Actually, the points given up by that 2003 team look a lot like those late 80s teams: shutting down weaker opponents but then getting hammered by decent teams. (If I see PT Willis walking down the street, I'm going to punch him.) The difference that makes 2003 stand out is what the defense looked like the year before (36 points by Iowa State?) and after (too painful too mention).

BTW offense matters quite a bit. Get 32 picks and it'd be helpful if your offense wouldn't have a 3 and out after every one of them.

 
HA I have a poster of that too..probably the same thing but mine had Bo's autograph on it 'cuz my mom taught his daughter.

 
WHAT A JOKE! didn't this team lead the nation in INTs, yet were killed by any team with a mobile QB, UT, KSU and Missouri! NFL talent and great college teams are two different things! No McBride defense was getting 40 points scored on it 3 times to big rivals UT, MU and KSU and saying they did a GREAT JOB! Kids!

^^^sad but true. when i think about all those guys in the nfl (and i love following them) i cant help but think they underachieved while here somehow. oh, im sure someone will bring up the offense this or that, but doesnt defense win championships? :ahhhhhhhh

Continuity. If I remember correctly Bo was the 3rd DC in 4 or 5 years.

 
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I remeber a FSU team that hammered us for 40 pts +. Also, giving up 400+ yrds to K-st and winning the game

 
Who hired Bo again, oh yes, a man that knows alot more about football than us. I don't really see anymore dominating football defenses! Maybe, USC, but they play in the pac 10. They play hard adn agressive, be happy and support your team see you in Jacksonville

 
JTrain said:
It makes me excited for the years to come when Pelini gets the guys he wants in there and we can have another great defense like '03 or '99.
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Pelini didn't recruit those guys, Frank did. So I don't know how you can call them his guys. He is just a great coach that got them to play at a high level.

 
Eric said:
JTrain said:
It makes me excited for the years to come when Pelini gets the guys he wants in there and we can have another great defense like '03 or '99.
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Pelini didn't recruit those guys, Frank did. So I don't know how you can call them his guys. He is just a great coach that got them to play at a high level.
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:yeah

I know I am getting older and my memory seems to skip around a bit, but wasn't the 2002 D horrible with pretty much the same guys as 2003? :dunno

 
That was a very good, possibly great defensive team. JTrain's points are good ones. They didn't have nearly the help from the offense as some of the great defenses under McBride.

In the 3 bad games, I felt Pelini took some risks when we fell behind to try to get back in the game. If he'd have been told that his job was to forget the overall score and concentrate only on limiting the other team, I think you'd have seen better numbers--but no chance to win.

There were a couple of weak spots. I remember that Vince Young ran at will around "One Sack"'s end. We also had a CB who got burned a lot.

Carriker also played a bit on this team, but is correctly not included by the OP as a blackshirt on this defense.

 
JTrain said:
And if that defense under-achieved as you believe, surely that would not show well for Pelini's coaching ability. For how a group plays in relation to its talent level is usually a direct result of coaching competency.

I prefer to think they over-achieved slightly, given the circumstances. And apparently others agreed, seeing how Bo's career path went after 2003.
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I think how the same players went from great to not so great from 03' to 04' maybe says more about Cosgrove's lack of coaching ability than it does anything else. I mean this is the same guy who told his DL to keep their hands down rather than up.

dee_s3 said:
Who hired Bo again, oh yes, a man that knows alot more about football than us. I don't really see anymore dominating football defenses! Maybe, USC, but they play in the pac 10. They play hard adn agressive, be happy and support your team see you in Jacksonville
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Bo was hired by none other than Frank Solich. From the vibes I've gotten over the years from Husker fans, many would disagree with you that he knows more about football than us. The 03' defense and how those players performed at the next level show the differences between Solich and Clownahan. With todays scholly limits, Solich obviously recruited to the defensive side of the ball while Clownahan recruited to the offensive side of the ball. Maybe this is why we're seeing s so-called loaded defenses in the SEC and loaded offenses in the Big 12.

 
junior4949 said:
Bo was hired by none other than Frank Solich. From the vibes I've gotten over the years from Husker fans, many would disagree with you that he knows more about football than us.
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the many would be wrong. Frankie forgot more than 99.99% of internet posters like us ever knew about college football.

seeing the potential in Bo is just more evidence that solich knows a thing or two.

 
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