[Husker] A Word In Edgewise, If You Please...

[Pat Gaule]

Tommy Thompson wrote:

> I'm glad Pat brought up all of those coaches that inherited teams and 
> then turned them around.  How many of those coaches (Bob Stoops, Pete 
> Carroll, Nick Saban, Jim Tressel, Mack Brown) completely overhauled 
> the offensive scheme from option oriented to West Coast?  None, that I 
> can remember.  That said, we should expect Callahan's turnaround to 
> take a little longer than the others.
>
As far as personnel is concerned, Nebraska's offense is not the problem, 
and this is a point you acknowledge later on in your post.  You can't 
blame Callahan's lack of success on the difficulties of transitioning to 
a new offensive system, and then turn arund and point out Nebraska's 
success on offense against USC.  All you did was contradict yourself.  
How many players that were recruited to run an "option-oriented" offense 
are still on this team?  Not many.  After this year, I don't think there 
will be any.  That excuse doesn't hold any water as far as the defense 
is concerned.

> I think the Huskers will surprise us over the rest of the year.  
> Before this season began, I thought Nebraska would lose at least 4 
> games (Wake, USC, TX, Missouri) and maybe a 5th (aTm).  After seeing 
> this team develop over the past two weeks, however, I think it is 
> realistic to think the Huskers will lose only one more game (TX).  

I think that is wishful thinking.  Losing only to Texas (which is 
debatable) would put us in the Big 12 Championship game, and I don't see 
any way that Nebraska can beat OU or Texas in that game (likely OU).  
Like USC, OU is on a level far above Nebraska right now.  At best, I see 
Nebraska losing two more games.  My honest prediction is that they will 
lose 3 or 4 more games.

> The offense is in place.  The defense needs to stop the run, and I 
> think they will.

Nothing I have seen out of Cosgrove during the past four seasons makes 
me think he will turn this defense around.

>
> USC was the best team the Huskers will face this year.  That said, the 
> Huskers had more 1st downs, more yards passing, and only 37 fewer 
> total yards.


It's kind of funny that you point out the Huskers having "more 1st 
downs."  The primary reason for that is because USC had a whole lot of 
big yardage plays.  That's a very misleading statistic.

The "total yardage" does not mean a whole lot to me since it was rather 
obvious that USC called off the dogs late in the game, allowing Nebraska 
to finally get some yardage against a very soft defense.  The offense 
didn't play terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but don't fool 
yourself into thinking they went toe-to-toe with USC on offense.

As far as passing is concerned, there wasn't much need for USC to go to 
the air when they averaged 8.2 yards/rush.

>
> I believe the Huskers are a lot better than some of you think.


I believe they're a run-of-the-mill top 20-25 team...roughly the same as 
last year and the year before, and maybe a tad better.  We will see.