This team is going to be fine.

[fatboyspanky]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

 

[TheSker]

Gave them those clearout screens/flats that gained only 10-15 yards this year would've probably resulted in field-length td's with Compton and/or Whaley tryin to chase em down.

Add Fish to that group too. Gerry's speed allowed him to disrupt the pass Evans ended up intercepting. It's been a while since we've had that difference maker. It's why we know we need Gerry on the field as a true frosh.....our speed is improved as well as our size in the trenches. Also, Randy Gregory has the speed and agility to do things C Meredith simply wasn't able to do at the DE spot. We've upgraded our defense.

 

[2ndNnine]

If the D is so terrible, Brett the Messiah should have driven the fearsome Poke offense down the field and scored to win the game in the last 1:15...

Instead: 0 yards, throws ball out of bounds as time expires.

Beck is the ahole here for calling a pass instead of cramming the ball up the collective brown and yellow kiesters and sealing a 19 or 23 point win. When the chips were down, Smith had nowhere to go. That's encouraging I think.

 

[sd'sker]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

that is a powerful statement. i hope all of husker-nation sees this, especially the bo, the ad, and the president of nu.

 

[TheSker]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

that is a powerful statement. i hope all of husker-nation sees this, especially the bo, the ad, and the president of nu.

I'm sure the people with the power realize the last time we got rid of a coach who won 9 games......the next season we improved to 5 wins and no bowl.

 

[sd'sker]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

that is a powerful statement. i hope all of husker-nation sees this, especially the bo, the ad, and the president of nu.

I'm sure the people with the power realize the last time we got rid of a coach who won 9 games......the next season we improved to 5 wins and no bowl.

yeah, i am on your side. i was being sarcastic.

 

[TheSker]

yeah, i am on your side. i was being sarcastic.

I hear ya.....I've been on the sarcastic side myself with some of these ridiculous posts.

 

[irafreak]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

that is a powerful statement. i hope all of husker-nation sees this, especially the bo, the ad, and the president of nu.

I'm sure the people with the power realize the last time we got rid of a coach who won 9 games......the next season we improved to 5 wins and no bowl.

Sigh....again this whole idea that criticism = not supporting the team...is bullsh#t. I expect Nebraska to take the next step. Just like I expected Frank Solich to take the next step. He was never given the chance. Bo should be given the chance. But we could fire Bo and end up with a better coach or a worse coach....the argument that there is nothing better out there simply makes an excuse to maintain our current status and not elevate it.

I didn't agree with solich getting fired. He made changes...first time HC at a big time program destined to never be able to live up to TO's legacy. Bo deserves time too. Even though Bo has our support, it doesn't make him immune to our criticism. This team is sloppy and undisciplined...year after year... Can he fix this as he learns how to be more consistent and disciplined himself? The issues we see each year on the field are with different players and different coordinators. Bo Pelini is the only common denominator.

Is it too much to expect our teams to not make stupid penalties at the worst times...false starts on a 3rd and short game after game... it's the little things. I don't remember watching TO's teams false start on a regular basis. It's almost predictable now. FS teams drove me nuts with the turnovers. It's coaching. It's all coaching. It can be fixed. Other coaches fix it. This is a weakness of Bo and rather than spend a week talking about the few positives in an ugly game....

 

[funhusker]

Time to start showing consistency with this program.

Like being one of only four programs in the country to have won at least 9 games each of the past five seasons? Honestly, that puts us in pretty elite company

Yes. Let's beat our chest and be overly proud of losing 1 out of every 3 games we play. This place used to be the home of champions. Now it's the home of "good enough".

that is a powerful statement. i hope all of husker-nation sees this, especially the bo, the ad, and the president of nu.

Hopefully, people in a position of significance, such as AD, realize it is 1 out of every 4 games they play....

 

[KJ.]

I also think the proclamations of imminent destruction are coming in way too soon.

1. This defense does not have to be great or even good in September/October. It has to be mediocre, create a few turnovers, and focus on improving.

2. We played against a fantastic QB. Yes, it's Wyoming. Welcome to the age of parity. Not only was he good; he was on fire. He was playing in an extremely effective system run by an extremely effective OC (or HC in this case). Lots of 1-on-1 matchups in space against young, inexperienced LBs.

3. Our young defense needed a good punch in the mouth. Anyone on that team who had any illusions of relying on talent should now be blissfully awake. There is so much work to do. But then we all knew that--it was all anyone could talk about all offseason.

4. We had that game put away when Beck went full retard and called up a Taylor Martinez interception when we were up 18 and in field goal range. Had we run the ball like we were doing, we either get a first down or three points, thus making it a three score game and likely deflating Wyoming for good. At the very least we'd have gotten field position instead of a giant interception return. Long story short, we let the bastards back in when we didn't have to. The Wyo D was gassed, plain and simple, and we decide it's time to throw the football. That's on Martinez. That's on Beck.

This is a make or break year for Pelini. If I have any reputation it's probably as a doom and gloomer, which I'm not. I prefer the term "realist." Realism tells me that as long as we keep winning in September--and early October--there is nothing to complain about. Having true and redshirt freshmen as a regular part of your rotation at a half a dozen positions means you're going to get points put up on you by experienced, talented players, especially in spread systems with so many one-on-one matchups. It's just going to happen. As long as we win and the defense continues to learn and improve, I'd say we're on schedule. The only thing that matters is winning and getting this defense to grow up by November. It's still possible--even likely. If it doesn't happen, the coaching change conversation is inevitable, no matter what the sunshine pumpers union would like to believe.

Now I'm not happy about the Wyoming game, but we didn't lose. That's something. On to next week.

Most logical, perspective piece of literature I've ever read from you. Nicely done.

Completely disagree. Almost every single one of x's posts are great. He needs to post more.

 

[Hooked on Huskers]

If the D lays down in the first half, UCLA will beat us handily...no matter what we did or didn't show on offense, we better hope the same defense doesn't show up again.

Yep, I am afraid another embarrassing loss on national TV.

Debbie Downer here.......

 

[tschu]

I think its safe to say zaire and afalava are the 2 best LBs on this team

They certainly made the fewest mistakes on Saturday.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

I think even the most loyal Husker fan can be excused for raising an eyebrow or two and wondering -- politely -- why the defensive guru we hired 6 years ago is presiding over a defense that continues to slide into the NCAA's statistical gutter.

I have no idea what to expect anymore from this team, but I remain wildly curious and ultimately loyal so I'm going to go out on a limb and say we will look back on this thread in December and have a good chuckle.

I'm not sure why we'll be chuckling.

Also, I've been drinking heavily.

 

[Enhance]

I also think the proclamations of imminent destruction are coming in way too soon.

1. This defense does not have to be great or even good in September/October. It has to be mediocre, create a few turnovers, and focus on improving.

2. We played against a fantastic QB. Yes, it's Wyoming. Welcome to the age of parity. Not only was he good; he was on fire. He was playing in an extremely effective system run by an extremely effective OC (or HC in this case). Lots of 1-on-1 matchups in space against young, inexperienced LBs.

3. Our young defense needed a good punch in the mouth. Anyone on that team who had any illusions of relying on talent should now be blissfully awake. There is so much work to do. But then we all knew that--it was all anyone could talk about all offseason.

4. We had that game put away when Beck went full retard and called up a Taylor Martinez interception when we were up 18 and in field goal range. Had we run the ball like we were doing, we either get a first down or three points, thus making it a three score game and likely deflating Wyoming for good. At the very least we'd have gotten field position instead of a giant interception return. Long story short, we let the bastards back in when we didn't have to. The Wyo D was gassed, plain and simple, and we decide it's time to throw the football. That's on Martinez. That's on Beck.

This is a make or break year for Pelini. If I have any reputation it's probably as a doom and gloomer, which I'm not. I prefer the term "realist." Realism tells me that as long as we keep winning in September--and early October--there is nothing to complain about. Having true and redshirt freshmen as a regular part of your rotation at a half a dozen positions means you're going to get points put up on you by experienced, talented players, especially in spread systems with so many one-on-one matchups. It's just going to happen. As long as we win and the defense continues to learn and improve, I'd say we're on schedule. The only thing that matters is winning and getting this defense to grow up by November. It's still possible--even likely. If it doesn't happen, the coaching change conversation is inevitable, no matter what the sunshine pumpers union would like to believe.

Now I'm not happy about the Wyoming game, but we didn't lose. That's something. On to next week.

1. It's not that people are expecting a great defense. People are expecting the defense to be better and not make the same mistakes they've been making since 2011. What happened Saturday should never have happened - period.

2. Smith had a great game, but he himself is not great. He's just pretty good. While NFL has little to nothing to do with college, I doubt he's more than a back up at the next level. Which is more than Martinez will be at QB, imo.

3. How many punches in the mouth or wake up calls does this team need, though? Last year's UCLA game was supposed to be a wake up call, same within tOSU blowing us out. And the year before, Wisconsin was a wake up call. Many of these guys now starting were on the team last year. They don't need any more motivation to play well.

4. I agree Beck didn't have his most brilliant game calling plays, but I've been very impressed with him over the last couple of years. He had some fantastic play calling last year. And if a play works, people rarely complain about the call. Just something to keep in perspective.

5. I'm not ready to call this a make or break year yet. Pelini has been a very good, all encompassing coach. Few off-the-field issues, his players love him, his players graduate pretty well and he wins most games. That said, a five loss year or even a four loss year with a historically bad defense, and I don't know what Eichorst would do. Eichorst could very well feel the program needs to go a different direction if that happens, and truth be told, I wouldn't blame him.

It's far too early to get too doom and gloom about everything. Overall, week one was not a good week one by any stretch of the imagination. But we've got three months of football left, so I'm certainly giving the coaches their opportunity to do what they're paid to do - coach.

 

[True2tRA]

I'm not giving up hope for a good season. Not happy with week one, but it is only week one. But to be clear, I am a Husker fan. I support this university and these players first and foremost. It's not called the university of Pelini. I don't yell Go Big Pelini's. Apparently some of you scream Bo's name. Nebraska will still be Nebraska with or without Bo. I'll still root em on with or without Bo. It's just a lot more fun watching Nebraska do well. Fun for me, and fun for the players.

I want what's best for this program. At this point I'm not sure we are headed down the right road. Hope we figure it out. On to next week.......