Why I'm Not Depressed

Guy Chamberlin

Guy Chamberlin

Heisman Trophy Winner
I like to think I take a back seat to no man in criticizing Bo Pelini and expressing my disatisfaction with 9 win seasons.

Go ahead and look at my posting history. I'm a cynical bastard.

But I had an unexpected reaction to our five turnover loss to Michigan State.

I realized that I liked this team.

They got off the mat and kept fighting. Hard. Both sides of the ball. And for all my previous cynicism, I realized that I believed in them. In the fourth quarter I believed this defense could still hold. I believed this offense could still score. Freshman quarterback and decimated offensive line against supposedly best defense in the country. They did not seem intimidated. They just didn't hang onto the ball.

They say you can't give up five turnovers and win a game. But the Huskers were down by only six in the fourth quarter. Just needed one more stop. Just needed one more drive. Didn't happen. The #13 team in the country was a little better and were probably due a bit of luck and a couple bad calls, given their lousy history against Nebraska.

Also, these guys are young. I have no idea why it took so long to gel, but they are gelling. Penalties are down over the past couple seasons, and the stupid kind of penalties are waaaaay down. Not being a Bo fan, I've tried to figure out a way to avoid crediting the coaches. But this feels like a young team that is improving game to game. And I'm pretty sure that's all I could ask for when Martinez went down. Never imagined losing our three best offensive linemen.

I also never imagined myself cheering this much for our defense. Watching Randy Gregory come around the corner and accelerate. Seeing a quarterback get rattled by the Nebraska defense again. It's good stuff.

Young team. Lots of adversity. Signs of improvement.

At least one more season for Bo Pelini, whether you like it or not.

So try to like it and have some fun.

 
What's to be depressed about? I expected a 9-4 season with a loss to UCLA and several conference losses, and that's what we are going to get.

 
Its too bad our schedule set up the way it did. It just oozed opportunity. But if you havent been there before, half our starters, its rough performing like you have to week in and week out. We win as a team, and when we make mistakes, well we do that as a team too.

I think it gets overlooked that the teams we played so far are actually pretty damn good regardless what records reflect. What we have is a youthful team that hasnt given up once this year. Even if they arent quite there next year Id be shocked to see us lose more than two games. It just seems like things are clicking and falling into place.

Now, Bo, get someone on your staff to help these kids hold onto the ball and we will be doing fine.

 
nothing to hang our heads on. We could be 3-7. Defense is getting better. We will still win 9 games and Ill say it now win the bowl game to go 10-3. Perfectly fine for me..

 
10-3 is definitely achievable. A month to prepare the defense for our opponent oughta help. Bowl against most of our projected opponents are winable.

 
1995 Redux said:
Its too bad our schedule set up the way it did. It just oozed opportunity. But if you havent been there before, half our starters, its rough performing like you have to week in and week out. We win as a team, and when we make mistakes, well we do that as a team too.

I think it gets overlooked that the teams we played so far are actually pretty damn good regardless what records reflect. What we have is a youthful team that hasnt given up once this year. Even if they arent quite there next year Id be shocked to see us lose more than two games. It just seems like things are clicking and falling into place.

Now, Bo, get someone on your staff to help these kids hold onto the ball and we will be doing fine.
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I watched the Northwestern vs. Michigan game. Those were two of the worst offenses I've ever seen, and we almost lost to them both. Purdue, Northwestern, and Illinois still haven't won a conference game. Eventually they will, but only because they play each other. Someone has to win. Otherwise, I would assume they would tie. Illinois and Purdue in particular are truly awful.

 
Good call, Guy. I'm actually kind of annoyed that I'm being roped back in with hope. I feel like I've been duped so many times that past successes will be indicative of future wins only to have another "weird"-type defeat. "Hopefully", next year will be different or I'm hopping on the groundhog day train with Dirk Chatelain (see yesterday's article) and Sam McKewon (see today's article).

 
Guy Chamberlin said:
I like to think I take a back seat to no man in criticizing Bo Pelini and expressing my disatisfaction with 9 win seasons.

Go ahead and look at my posting history. I'm a cynical bastard.

But I had an unexpected reaction to our five turnover loss to Michigan State.

I realized that I liked this team.

They got off the mat and kept fighting. Hard. Both sides of the ball. And for all my previous cynicism, I realized that I believed in them. In the fourth quarter I believed this defense could still hold. I believed this offense could still score. Freshman quarterback and decimated offensive line against supposedly best defense in the country. They did not seem intimidated. They just didn't hang onto the ball.

They say you can't give up five turnovers and win a game. But the Huskers were down by only six in the fourth quarter. Just needed one more stop. Just needed one more drive. Didn't happen. The #13 team in the country was a little better and were probably due a bit of luck and a couple bad calls, given their lousy history against Nebraska.

Also, these guys are young. I have no idea why it took so long to gel, but they are gelling. Penalties are down over the past couple seasons, and the stupid kind of penalties are waaaaay down. Not being a Bo fan, I've tried to figure out a way to avoid crediting the coaches. But this feels like a young team that is improving game to game. And I'm pretty sure that's all I could ask for when Martinez went down. Never imagined losing our three best offensive linemen.

I also never imagined myself cheering this much for our defense. Watching Randy Gregory come around the corner and accelerate. Seeing a quarterback get rattled by the Nebraska defense again. It's good stuff.

Young team. Lots of adversity. Signs of improvement.

At least one more season for Bo Pelini, whether you like it or not.

So try to like it and have some fun.
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+1

 
Guy; you are not alone in your feelings about loving the fight these kids brought this past weekend and the fact that the talent looks to be there going forward!

As for Bo and his future here, well there are probably 20 threads on HB that relay people’s feelings one way or the other. I personally like Bo and hate "HATE" the consistency of threads (fire Bo or keep Bo) coming up every year but I understand why they do and that is because we find ourselves in the same spot year in and year out.

It wouldn’t matter what else I typed here if I was pro Bo or negative Bo, the response’s would be forthcoming! There is evidence to support either theory and I have stated my thoughts in other threads prior to the MSU game. It has not changed.

I will just do my part and support the kids regardless and I suspect that is all any of us can do since the future of the Husker Football program ultimately is in the hands of SE and HP along with a dozen or so Super Boosters!

 
I know that Bo and the staff know football and I know that I should trust them in fixing the issues that killed us saturday, which seem to be the same things over the past 5+ years. Simple, bonehead plays that swing the game away from us. The problem I have is that it just keeps happen. Bo fixed the D, fixed the offense, revamped his staff, changed conferences, greatly improved recruiting WHILE having to adjust his roster management due to the conference change, then appears to have fixed the defense AGAIN, but yet, it just seems like the most simple basics of football are just completely neglected when it comes to big games. We just completely crap our pants every time. Sometimes, we overcome them, but Saturday was just too much. This is Bo's number 1 task this offseason. He needs to evaluate, reevaluate, and evaluate again the mental issues that constant plague this team and hold it back. That, and for sh#t's sake, find a way to make something out of punt returns.

 
I loved how our team fought through adversity. We should have lost that game by a lot but we still had a chance to win in the 4th quarter. I like how our coaches trust our players. An example of this is after the Armstrong, Newby fumble on the first drive with an option then later on in the 1st quarter they went back to an option with Newby and Armstrong. I like how Bo keeps going back to Armstrong every game to start even if he had a shaky game before.

I know it's Bo's 6th year and people are tired of getting the same result every year....... of at least 9 WINS. I think he is really figuring out how to be a head coach and it's showing. We have a lot of young talent on this team that has been playing great the past few games.

 
It's a really tough situation right now. You're either on one side of the fence or the other. You're either viewed as a pessimist, or viewed as somebody you lives off moral victories. The worse part is no matter which side of the fence you're on, you have blinders on. There's no reason to think that a new coach will magically fix everything and there's no reason to think that a new coach would set the program back ten years. It's ridiculous to think that the football program is a cesspool right now, but it's ridiculous to think that everything is fine as well. The young players on the team are starting to turn the corner, but the same problems that have plagued the team under Bo are still there. Clearly something needs to change, but it's hard to know what the right answer is.

 
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