2010 Nebraska Thread

[Metroid]

I love Tuesday Night Football! Those Sun Belt games are better than watching anything on network TV, that's for sure.

Totally agree, although the game last night was pretty much a snoozer, UAB and UCF on right now...pretty much a snoozer as well. Oh well, it is football.

[knapplc]

It's been a while since I updated this, so here goes:

Taylor Martinez can run. Taylor Martinez can pass. He's taking baby steps to the next level, but when he gets there - and that could be anytime from now until this time next year - look the heck out.

Nebraska continues to have difficulty on the line on both sides of the ball. The loss of Ndamukong Suh has brought this D line crashing back to reality. Part of it is scheme, part of it is lack of talent, but the end result is very few tackles for loss, and very few sacks. They've put plenty of pressure on the quarterback, but they have very little to show for their efforts. This late in the season, this is very troubling.

The O Line has definitely improved over last year and has shown flashes of brilliance, but they have not put back-to-back games together. This is clearly not the Nebraska line of old. Whether that's from differing philosophies or differing talent, the end result here is steamrolling defensive lines one moment, completely busting the next.

This is an improving team, but we're not there yet. A solid season will be a bowl game and a top-ten finish. Upper limit, if everything clicks and mathematical miracles happen, is the BCS Championship game, but that's a 1/1,000,000 shot right now. Most likely we'll contend for the conference title and play a decent bowl game.

[Sandrock]

Here's something you might find interesting Knapp. I ended up making it to the USC game last night, and because I had given my own tickets away weeks ago, a friend of my fathers arranged for me to sit in his private box for the game. Before each game, the people from all the private boxes get catered meals and it's served in a giant private meeting room. It was my first time in there (and probably last) but the guy sitting next to me was a Pac-10 official named Rich Troyer, whose brother has a private box at the Oregon State games.

Curious, I asked him which team traditionally gives him the most problems and not surprisingly he names USC. But then, after berating USC for a few minutes, he says "as bad as USC is, the worst person I've ever dealt with is this Oregon assistant named Scott Frost. The first time I worked a game with him, I had to tell him I wouldn't listen to anymore sentences that started with you or I since that's all he can think to say. He thinks he was a hotshot at Nebraska and his attitude is piss poor. None of my crew can stand the guy." I proceeded to tell him that I had heard some nice things about Scott Frost and he said "I don't know about his demeanor off the field, but his on field demeanor leaves a lot to be desired. I've had to tell Chip in both Oregon games I worked this season that if this guy says one more word to me, I'm going to flag him.

I thought you might find that interesting since you have said some good things about Scott Frost in the past. Apparently he's public enemy #1 for one officiating crew.

[Omaha Red Sox]

Youtube search Jerod-Edie and you'll see how our day went yesterday. :(

[knapplc]

I find it hard to believe that Mr. Troyer would have any experience with Frost and Nebraska. I find it extremely difficult to believe that Frost would bring up Nebraska in any way while on the sidelines at an Oregon game. The fact that Mr. Troyer brings that up in his comments makes me doubtful of his integrity. Sounds like Mr. Troyer is mixing up some personal feelings with his opinion. If he's willing to make comments like that to (apparently) a random stranger at a dinner, he doesn't sound like the kind of person whose opinion I would value.

[AquaMan2342]

Knapp- Any opinions on Pelini's sideline tirades and Martinez apparently quitting or at least threatening to last week? He's obviously staying with the team, but he's beginning to seem like kind of a diva (Martinez).

[knapplc]

I've heard from "inside" sources that Taylor is a bit of a diva. Remember the rumors that Martinez had quit the team in Fall Camp, only to suddenly be named the starting QB a week later. I have yet to hear a solid report that Martinez DID quit the team, but there's a lot of smoke. Hard to say.

Martinez is definitely egotistical, but you could probably say that about maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of the players out there. He's got a lot of talent and if he continues to develop as a passer, he's going to be in the middle of the Heisman race next year. He's a game-changing player, but he's also very young. The good news is we have Brion Carnes redshirting right now who will push Martinez next year, and two committed recruits who should be very good as well, Bubba Starling and Jamal Turner. Turner is considered the coup of our recruiting class, because most nobody knows he's as good as he is. Starling will likely play baseball next year, since he was just named the #1 high school prospect by Baseball America. Regardless of whether Martinez is a troublemaker or not, he's going to have stiff competition for his job next year, and his attitude may become irrelevant.


As for Bo, yes, he has GOT to tone it down. Sure, he has an extremely legitimate gripe in the way our games are being called, but even still, that kind of tirade all game long on national TV is embarrassing. He's got anger issues, clearly, and he needs to rein that in. I'm still behind him 100%, but if he doesn't get that fixed soon he's going to have problems.

[Omaha Red Sox]

Well put Lance. I think all Bo needs to figure out is the difference between his demeanor in practice and that of a nationally televised sideline. Crick and others have already defended their coach's actions.

I don't know about Martinez being a diva, never heard of that before, but I did hear why he was getting his butt chewed by Bo. Apparently he made a phone call to his parents while in the locker room having his ankle examined and NU rules are no phone calls during a game.

Looks like Cody Green will get the start against CU (on a side note, I will get to fish with Cody after the season is over ). Lee is still day-to-day and was supposedly "available" on Saturday. Arm must still be bugging him.

Conspiracy theorists around here are eating this up. The calls were absolutely ridiculous. I'm not one to call out officiating, I realize it's usually a wash, but 16-2? I realize we played awful, but our defense deserved better than to lose that game the way we did.

[knapplc]

My biggest gripe about the penalties isn't that we had 16 called against us - I can live with almost all of them except the roughing-the-passer penalty - the problem I have is that they didn't call holding on A&M one time, and there were several egregious holds that should have been called. Call those and two of A&M's scoring drives stall.

Regardless, our offense HAS TO score points when the chips are down. It should not affect the way the line blocks if Martinez is hurt. It should not affect the WR's ability to get open. It should not affect the playcalling. Our entire offense cannot revolve around one player, but it seems like if Martinez is hurt, our offense doesn't work, period. That's unacceptable.

[Sandrock]

He never insinuated that Scott Frost talked about Nebraska on the sidelines, I believe it was more his opinion that his success at Nebraska had instilled him with a poor attitude and inflated ego. I know most of the Troyer clan, but I had never met him, so I wasn't a complete, complete stranger. And I was the only one at the entire table who wasn't part of the Troyer family, so perhaps he felt more comfortable opening up. All the Troyers I know are good people, so I would expect the same from Rich. It could just be a case of people or personalities not mixing well with one another. Or perhaps Rich or Scott or both act completely different on the sideline from what we'd expect.