[Husker] My Husker thoughts (fwd)

[Mike Nolan]

> I find it disturbing that Callahan attributes the failure of the defense 
> to "fundamentals". While that seems obviously correct - witness all the 
> missed tackles - you have to wonder why it is so. Some of the defensive 
> starters have been at NU four or five years, and yet they have to go 
> back to "fundamentals" in the middle of the season? Maybe the coaches 
> spend too much time on overly-complicated schemes and not enough on 
> football. Or, perhaps, they just aren't very good teachers.

Three games isn't really the 'middle of the season' yet.  Moreover, there's 
a subtle difference between 'fundamentals', 'skills' and 'technique'.

You can do everything COMPLETELY RIGHT fundamentally and still get beat
on a play if your technique is wrong or if the other player is more 
skilled than you are (eg, stronger, faster, makes a better cut, etc.)

To me the big difference last Saturday wasn't fundamentals or technique, it 
was skills.  USC was bigger than we were, and faster.  And it showed,
far too many times.  Their 2nd team might be good enough to be rated in 
the top 10.  

As someone noted, some time in the past few years USC and Nebraska passed 
each other on the stairs, Nebraska going down, USC going up.  USC doesn't 
appear to have started going back down yet (nothing lasts forever), 
whether Nebraska is heading up at the moment is much more debatable.  

As Husker fans, we enjoyed a lot of time at or near the top of that 
staircase, perhaps we all forgot what it was like for those below us.  
--
Mike Nolan