Washington at Nebraska Preview

[Lil' Red]

Was Martinez injured going into the bowl game? Seems to me they were saying in the build up to the game that he was back to 100%.

Martinez wasn't ever 100% after the Mizzou game. Several times after his injury he and the coaches said he was 100% even when it is obvious he wasn't. I still don't think that Martinez is back to 100% as high ankle sprains take a while to recover from.

 

[Blackshirt316]

Washington saw two Nebraska teams last year: a team early in the year with a healthy T-Mart and a perfect record to protect against their first 'real' opponent, and then a team that had an injured T-Mart, a disappointing last few weeks, a boring bowl game, a boring opponent, and nothing to play for.

The team Washington will see this fall will be the same one they saw last September, a motivated team. Sark may have them better, but nowhere near good enough.

Nebraska saw two different Husky teams as well. Firstly, the defense was without the Defensive QB, Cort Dennision. I felt, going into the Nebraska game, that his absence was was going to be a big factor, but not as big as it was.

I do have some hope for whatever Nebraska throws the Huskies' way this fall. In the Oregon game last year the Huskies handled them better than any team had up to the 6 minute mark of the 3rd quarter with the back up QB Keith Price. The Oregon game was a huge confidence booster for the Huskies as the defense saw that they could hang with the Ducks for most of the game. From that point on the DL turned in good and at times dominant performances...including the Holiday Bowl. I think/hope that is the team that the Huskies have become.

Was Martinez injured going into the bowl game? Seems to me they were saying in the build up to the game that he was back to 100%. Is this your opinion that they're that much better or do you have some substantiation to your remarks? The big reason the Huskies were beaten so badly in the first game was Martinez breaking away on the long runs. This year they're going to have Shirley and Jamora helping to contain the pocket (and making it collapse) and funneling plays inside so Martinez won't be able to break the long ones. I think some good reading for you might be on Josh Shirley reports from last season and of him this spring. I think he's a game changer on defense. He's the sort of hybrid player that teams will be looking for going forward in an effort to offset the spread gimmicky plays that the Ducks and Gators (under Urban Myer) would run. If they 2011 Nebraska Cornhuskers are looking to go that way it will be a nice opportunity to put Josh onto the national scene...if he is, indeed, the player that I see him to be: Unblockable.

Martinez wasn't even 100% yet at the spring game, yet you think he was healthy for the bowl game?

Sorry dude but Nebraska had zero interest in that bowl game, had spent fewer than 5 bowl practices preparing for the game (the rest were spent watching film and preparing for the Big Ten), The offense was short 2 staff members, our New OC was using an offensive playbook that wasn't his own and was obsolete and the blackshirts played base Defense the entire game. Washington - direct from Jake Locker on his ESPN QB camp thing, treated that game like the Superbowl. And with all that, the Huskies STILL scored a grand total of 19 points and it was still a contest going into the 4th quarter.

The Washington game is easily the 2nd easiest game on the preseason schedule for Nebraska this upcoming season behind Chattanooga. Both Fresno State in Lincoln and Wyoming on the road are tougher opponents than the Huskies. 55-10 Nebraska.

 

[Hercules]

Nebraska won the first game 56-21, and Washington won the second game 19-7. I'm sure Washington improved by the end of the season, but they didn't improve that much.

You have to remember, Nebraska was a national title contender after their beatdowns of Washington and Kansas State. However, after losses against Texas and Texas A&M, the story of our last season in the Big 12 came down to winning the conference championship game. When we lost that by a measly field goal due to another collapse by the offense (which was commonplace after Martinez's injury - Washington didn't do anything special...), our season was effectively over.

So - every season goal now vanquished, all we had to look forward to was a game in sunny Arizona against our future rival, the Iowa Hawkeyes. But no - in a final, brilliant suckerpunch, the Big 12 put Missouri into the Insight Bowl to play Iowa, while we were relegated to a second consecutive year in the Holiday Bowl, playing a team we had already beaten by 35 points.

If you honestly think that Washington beat a Nebraska team that gave a crap about that game, you're being delusional. It would be hard to deliberately conjure up a confluence of events that would make a team care less about a bowl game than what happened to Nebraska last year.

In September, not only will Nebraska have their whole season in front of them, but they'll be looking for revenge just like Washington was looking for revenge in the Holiday Bowl. I'd also bet that Nebraska doesn't reveal much of their new offense until this game, so Washington won't be able to game-plan for it. Barring any key injuries between now and then, this game will be as ugly as the one last September.

 

[The Dude]

It's going to be a massacree.

 

[Enhance]

From a talent and coaching stand point I see no reason to think Nebraska does not win this game by at least two touchdowns.

From a defensive stand point, Nebraska is far superior to Washington. Nebraska has likely First Team All-Americans on the defensive line (Crick), linebacking corp (David) and secondary (Dennard). Bo Pelini is one of the top 3 defensive coaches in the nation and Carl Pelini has shown he's one of the best coordinators in the nation. We have had two top 10 defenses the last two years and there's no reason to expect anything outside of Top 20.

From an offensive stand point, Nebraska is more experienced at the quarterback position (although the issues there are well known) and I would say has more talented players on the roster right now than Washington. Talent doesn't always win, however, and we have a brand new offensive coordinator which will be interesting to see develop.

Lastly, and I'm sure you've heard this from Husker fans enough, but the Holiday Bowl was a fluke. Washington beat a team that had lost two of it's last three previous games in uninspiring fashion. Furthermore, Nebraska fell FAR short of it's expectations because of those games. No matter how you look at it, Nebraska was not ready or inspired to play in the Holiday Bowl and it showed. A heavily injured quarterback (and team) and depleted team mindset led to an uninteresting Washington win.

I don't mean to sound pompous or insulting, but this is just truly how I feel. Washington will be a better team in the future under Sarkisian, but Washington will not beat Nebraska in Memorial Stadium barring unforeseen circumstances.

Good luck on your other games outside of the Nebraska game, though.

 

[okaive]

I just hope this game doesn't turn into another 10' Texas. We expected high results last year and of course came out very disappointed.

 

[Mierin]

It's funny how differently the opposing teams see games, even when they seem reasonable. As a NE fan, I didn't even want to watch the game. It was disgusting that we had to play Washington again. I was bored from the start of it. As all of this was going through my head I knew that the players would feel almost the same, no matter what the coaches said, and before the game started I knew Washington had a good chance to win, even though we annihilated them before.

So ya, like others have said, Washington was not a different enough team to turn a 30ish point loss around. I don't care how good your arguments are

I just hope this game doesn't turn into another 10' Texas. We expected high results last year and of course came out very disappointed.

I doubt it will. Everyone knew how important that game was. It was THE game of the season. It was too much pressure. Washington is no comparison. (IMO, psychology is 50% of the game, especially with 18-22 year olds). That's why terrible teams can beat great ones. That's why college football is fun.

 

[GMoose]

If there's one thing I think everyone is overlooking it's Nick Holt. He's a great defensive mind, and if Bo Pelini showed us anything it's that a good defensive mind can turn around a defense very quickly.

In the bowl game, UW was aided in stopping NU's VERY one-dimensional offense with an injured Martinez and ample time to prepare for our zone-read. You can't give Nick Holt a month to prepare and still try to run that.

However, even though UW only scored 19, that gamed looked to me like a culmination of everything the Jack Locker era offense had the capacity to be. Scoring 19 points on NU's defense that had 3 weeks to prepare is impressive. Offensively, it sounds like you have a great FB and some good WR's coming in, you could say the same for NU, so I see that as a push. We've got the Kyler Reed at TE, with two years experience is probably as valuable as unproven ASJ at this point.

With a returning QB and experienced defense, I think the edge goes to NU right now. But again, I think the Nick Holt factor is overlooked. It could be huge in Washington's continuing improvement, because they are without a doubt on the way up.

 

[EZ-E]

NU throws out a more balanced, well-coached, more talented football team and wins it by 17. Takes care of some unfinished business.

We have three All-Americans on our defense. Not many teams we will play can say that.

 

[mnhusker]

NU throws out a more balanced, well-coached, more talented football team and wins it by 17. Takes care of some unfinished business.

We have three All-Americans on our defense. Not many teams we will play can say that.

Good straight forward analysis, take out all the emotion and I just don't seen the Huskies winning. Even if the teams were even it would come down to the home field and the huskies would still lose. For what it is worth I lived in seattle area for a while and the Huskies are a team I like, I still have an old pretty cool Purple Haze Sweatshirt from 1990 when they had a good defense in the back of the closet.

 

[bshirt]

NU throws out a more balanced, well-coached, more talented football team and wins it by 17. Takes care of some unfinished business.

We have three All-Americans on our defense. Not many teams we will play can say that.

Damn straight EZ-E. The blackshirts will be vicious and IF the offense improves we'll be load to deal with.

 

[walksalone]

First of all, welcome to the board...

Second of all, I concur with the two previous distinguished gentlemen. I think our defense will be ready, and a little upset as to how thing ended up last year. I'm sure they're going to want to put that behind them, and get a little payback. I don't like Mr. Price's odds in the least.

As long as the offense play relatively mistake free football, this game should be won by a couple scores.

 

[ladyhawke]

First of all, welcome to the board...

Second of all, I concur with the two previous distinguished gentlemen. I think our defense will be ready, and a little upset as to how thing ended up last year. I'm sure they're going to want to put that behind them, and get a little payback. I don't like Mr. Price's odds in the least.

As long as the offense play relatively mistake free football, this game should be won by a couple scores.

Ditto to what walksalone said plus we'll be playing at our house-again

Welcome to the board and we look forward to seeing you in the fall.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

First off, welcome to huskerboard and we hope you enjoy your time here.

Secondly, our defense will be just as good as it was last season if not better IMO. They will be well prepared for your offense and with the changes you've made on offense, while you say they are better, I see them as a possible recipe for disaster. You have some inexperience on offense, as do we, that has to come into Memorial Stadium against a big time opponent that's pissed off with how we were treated last season by the Big XII. That's what it comes down to..............we will have a bad taste in our mouths and will see the payback in the Washington Huskies being beaten badly.

Now having said that our offense is the biggest question mark and in my mind particuliary the offensive line. The line was poor last season, whether some want Martinez to shoulder the blame for the performance in the Big XII championship is neither her nor there. They HAVE to get better.............bottom line. I believe we'll be fine at receiver or at least on the same level we were last season, which isn't saying much, but we should be better given the athletes we have in those positions. The running back position is full of talent, but only Rex has the experience at this time. I'm confident that they will do fine in their respective positions. Martinez is going to be the second biggest question mark with his ankle and how he will run the new offense.

I'm not going to make excuses for the Holiday Bowl, we lost, you won.........bottom line. But, come September the series record for the past year will be 2 wins with 1 loss in NU's favor. 42-17 NU

 

[HowlingHusky]

Now having said that our offense is the biggest question mark and in my mind particuliary the offensive line. The line was poor last season, whether some want Martinez to shoulder the blame for the performance in the Big XII championship is neither her nor there. They HAVE to get better.............bottom line. I believe we'll be fine at receiver or at least on the same level we were last season, which isn't saying much, but we should be better given the athletes we have in those positions. The running back position is full of talent, but only Rex has the experience at this time. I'm confident that they will do fine in their respective positions. Martinez is going to be the second biggest question mark with his ankle and how he will run the new offense.

Looking down Phil Steele's Big 10 1st - 4th teams there aren't many offensive players and a single lineman. How big of a concern is the OL. This is the first I've heard of that. I've always thought of Nebraska as an OL factory. Is this a down year for it? It has been for the Huskies of late, but the quality is coming back...and for the Huskies really the key. I guess when I look back at the Holiday Bowl the Huskies were able to make it a long day for TM in the backfield, but I thought that to be an aberration. Historically hasn't NU had stout OL's?