[Husker] which is it ?

[Steve Stone]

weldoc wrote:

>  >From the Husker List: Who is more accurate ?
>
>Person #1:
>Thankfully the Blake Tiedtke era is over. I will try to remember him by
>his forced fumble on Navarre that led to the winning score and not by the
>endless number of times he was beaten, out of position, missed tackles or
>just generally was horrible throughout his career.
>______________________________________
>
>Person #2:
>This characterization of Tiedtke is objectionable both in principle and
>practice:
>1) To denigrate a playing Husker by name on this list is nothing short of
>dispecable.
>2) Tiedtke has played his position extremely well and not at all as
>portrayed above. Ask the coaches.
>________________________________________________________________I 
>ran this by cousin Rich, who follows the Big Red a heckuva lot closer
>than I, and this is what he said:
>
>Boy did you hit the sore spot with me.
>
>Person #2 has not watched one minute of football this year.

The only comment I'll make on this entire misbegotten jumble is that 
I began following Husker football closely during the 1941 Rose Bowl 
game when my Dad (who had coached Huskeer QB Roy Petsch at 
Scottsbluff Hi) and I charted the game together - - decades before 
Rich wet his first diapers.

>Tiedtke is
>the worst safety in division 1 football.  The only thing worse is Bill
>Busch playing him.  I started watching Tiedtke in about the 2nd or 3rd
>game, because I could not believe that he was actually starting.  He went
>the rest of the season making a huge (bad) play EVERY game without
>exception.  He personally turned more 8 yard gains into 60 yard TD's than
>anyone I have ever seen.  He continuously overran plays.  A few quick
>examples:  he was beaten on the Texas Tech game winning pass.  Overran
>Brad Smith on the sideline in the 1st qtr of Missouri (turned about an 8
>yard play into 60).  Adrian Peterson down the west sideline (20 yard run
>into 40+).  KU running back up the middle (10 yard play into 50).
>Colorado's 1st play of the game (turned 8 yard gain into 48).  Got beat
>by Michigan's tight end for TD.  It was unbelievable!  What was more
>unbelievable was that Busch continued to play him.  It isn't really
>Tiedke's fault - he just isn't a good enough athlete to play safety in
>Division 1.  And Busch NEVER took him out!  Look at the play's that
>Shanle made against Michigan on punt coverage. Tiedke beat him out.
>Shanle actually played last year when Bullocks was hurt.  He was the
>starter going into camp.  No way is Tiedke a better athlete.  And why,
>after so many HUGE mistakes does Busch keep him on the field?
>Granted, a safety is not going to make every tackle, but I have never
>watched a safety that was so easy to single out for screw-ups than him.
>You see corners get beat all the time, because they get matched up
>one-on-one all the time and it is a much harder position to play.  But
>you rarely notice a safety continuing to screw up, that is, not until
>Tiedke came along.

(snip)

I can recall scores of similar posts about other Huskers including 
Scott Frost and Eric Crouch, all as nauseating for reasons the 
writers probably never had the acuity to grasp.

The nasty posts about Crouch particularly bothered me because Eric's 
mother Susie O'Donnell and his grandfather John O'Donnell happened to 
be students of mine at Bellevue College. In fact, I attended the 
Crouches' wedding.

When Eric was playing, I was aware that, like almost all families of 
Husker players, they were HuskerList subscribers and read every 
single mindless rant by some Listers who had never looked a red zone 
in the eye.

Now, I can't prove it because I don't have access to HuskerList 
records, but I believe with moral certainty that the Tiedke family 
and friends also subscribe to this list but cannot respond in kind to 
posts like the ones above.

Even if the Tiedkes had never even heard of the HuskerList, it seems 
singularly maladroit to post such bilge through a university-level 
mailing list theoretically devoted to supporting the Huskers.

Steve Stone


44 Honey Bear
Mayhill NM 88339
1 505 687 2020